Love So Powerful That It Aches
by Archem
Summary: Scott McCall has been best friends with Stiles Stilinski for as long as he can remember. It wasn't until recently that his feelings toward Stiles began to feel like something more than close friendship. Now, Scott has to find out why his emotions have gone haywire, while also deciding what he's going to do about his girlfriend Allison.
1. Surrounded

"Hey, Stiles," I said as I sat down at the lunch table across from him.

"What's up, Scott? Hey, are you going to that bonfire this weekend?"

The bonfire was going to be a huge event. It seemed like everyone was talking about it. I had never been to a bonfire before, but, from what I'd heard around school lately, it was basically an event where everyone sat around drinking and just having a good time. That seemed like my kind of party.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. Yeah, I'm going. I meant to talk to you about that. You're coming with, right?"

"Duh," he responded.

"I'm gonna bring Allison, too," I said.

Stiles rolled his eyes. "Of course you are. Don't you ever have time for Stiles anymore?"

I felt guilty. Stiles had been my best friend my entire life and he felt neglected. That didn't seem right. The last thing I wanted was for Allison to come between us. My love for them was equal.

"I'm sorry, dude. I didn't realize." I scratched my head, not knowing what else to say.

"Well, now I'm offended. You should know me well enough to recognize when I'm pulling your leg. I don't care that you spend every waking moment with Allison. She's your girlfriend.

I smiled awkwardly in response. I was also surprised at myself for not catching his sarcasm. I usually always did. When you're best friends with someone who has sarcasm as the majority of their vocabulary, you become a natural at telling it apart from serious statements.

"Anyway, weirdo, have you even asked Allison to come with you?"

"Like you said yourself, she's my girlfriend. Isn't it kind of a given?"

"Yeah, but did you _ask_ her? The point of asking is not to receive an answer; it's to let her know to clear her schedule," Stiles said like it was _so_ obvious.

"Oh. I get it," I answered as it slowly clicked in my mind.

Stiles rolled his eyes at how clueless I was.

Sometimes, at moments like those, I felt like I wasn't even ready for a girlfriend. I felt like I should know those things on my own, but I didn't. Allison had constantly reassured me that I was an excellent boyfriend to her. I was always doubting myself and she noticed it. I loved her so much. That was why, even though I _felt_ like I wasn't ready for a girlfriend, I must have been. Maybe Allison wasn't just a girlfriend. I really did feel like she was something more, but how could someone be more than a girlfriend? Unless you're married, they couldn't be, in theory, but Allison was something to me that didn't even have a title. She was simply an Allison: a magnificent Allison. Yeah, I wasn't ready for a girlfriend; I was ready for an Allison, which was in an entirely different dimension from a girlfriend. I couldn't believe I actually even _had _an Allison, or, rather, it felt like an Allison had me; it had me good. I felt like the single luckiest guy on the planet to have her. It was scary, really. What made Scott McCall deserve to have an _Allison_ in his life? If you asked me, nothing did. There was no way that anyone in the universe could actually _deserve _an Allison. No, an Allison is something that you could never deserve, but if you were the one lucky enough to receive her affection, you would love her so much that you yourself would become bound in such a way that there wouldn't be anyone else on Earth that you could be with.

Before we knew it, lunchtime was over. As usual, I met Allison at her locker on the way to my next class.

"Hey," I said, smiling.

"Hey," she said back and kissed me.

"So, the bonfire," I started, "it's this weekend, well, Sunday, specifically."

"Say no more. I was awaiting your invitation. As a matter of fact, I was practicing my upset face for if you didn't ask me," she said jokingly.

After realizing that I was about to be late for my class again, I smiled, gave her a quick kiss, and jogged off down the wide hallway, bordered by lockers. I saw her giggling when I turned back midway through my trek. I loved to see her laugh.

The rest of the school day went by in a sort of blur for me. Come to think of it, it sort of always did. I was so relieved to hear the bell ring signaling the end of my final class period and the beginning of a very romantic weekend with Allison. I was herded through the school's front doors with Stiles and a mob of students, just as ecstatic for the weekend as us, as we headed for his Jeep. He was rambling on about something, but I was in my own head thinking of ways to be romantic with Allison after the bonfire on Sunday.

"Scott? Are you even listening to me?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, yeah. Something about...werewolves?"

He sighed. "I _said _I hope Derek and his werewolf clan don't cause any problems for us at the bonfire, such as having some sort of crisis during which we have to leave the bonfire and go help."

Stiles was right. That _was_ something to seriously worry about. With Derek, compromising situations seemed to present themselves fairly routinely, and I _definitely _didn't need him calling me in to help him stop another murderous shapeshifter on the prowl while I tried to impress Allison Sunday night.

"Oh. Yeah. I hadn't thought about that. Well, that's kind of a 'round-the-clock, back-of-my-mind issue anyway, so," I responded, hunching my shoulders and accepting that unpredictability was at the core of the werewolf lifestyle.

Stiles started his Jeep and started to reverse out of the parking space

"Hey, how about I stay at your house for a bit rather than going straight home. I don't really have anything else to do."

My weekends were always open during the daytime since Allison and I couldn't meet up in the forest preserve until it got dark.

"What am I, just your last resort for when you get bored?"

"Oh, I...uh...," I stuttered as I searched the depths of my mind for a proper response.

"Once again, kidding. What is up with you lately? I'm like the king of sarcasm; you know that."

I shook my head in a meager attempt to snap myself out of whatever was causing his sarcasm to blow right over me lately.

We pulled into his driveway and hopped out of his car. Stiles fumbled with his keys at the door.

"Gah!" he exclaimed in frustration.

His father opened the door just as Stiles put the key in.

"Dad! I almost had it," Stiles complained.

His father just rolled his eyes and walked away.

We went upstairs to his room and I plopped down on his bed. "What do you think I should do for Allison, I mean, after the bonfire?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa; too much information, much?"

"No, I meant, like, romance-wise," I responded quickly, slightly embarrassed that he thought I was asking him about _that_.

"Ugh. For some reason, that grosses me out ten times more. I change my mind; let's just talk about the sex instead."

"Stiles," I said, saying his name in a drawn-out whine.

"Ugh. Fine. Just, _shut up_. Um, flowers, chocolates; what else is there? Scott, I've never had a girlfriend."

"It's not _Valentine's Day_; I just wanna be kinda romantic before, you know, we get to the good stuff," I said in a sexual tone of voice to annoy him because I knew it repulsed him to discuss me and Allison's sex life.

"Oh, _God_," he said as if he would vomit, which made me giggle involuntarily. "Uh, really though, Scott, just follow your heart."

"Hmm. Follow my heart," I repeated. "I like that," I said, surprised at how genuine his suggestion seemed.

"I'm pretty sure I got that from a Disney movie," he said, helplessly cracking up at himself as he said the last few words.

"Stiles!" I yelled, laughing. I picked him up from his desk chair and slammed him on his bed. He was laughing and wrestling to get me off of him as I tortured him with tickles. Stiles was always the most ticklish person I knew, so I used it against him whenever I needed to, even when we were younger.

After I felt like he'd learned his lesson about not taking my personal issues seriously, I stopped tickling him and we settled down. We were both breathing hard and letting out a few scattered laughs as we lied parallel to each other on Stiles' striped blue comforter.

I turned my head to look at him and he did the same. I smiled. "Take me home," I ordered, still laughing slightly.

Stiles, still smiling, proceeded to put his jacket on and walk down the stairs toward the front door. I followed. As we got in his Jeep, something came over me and there was something that I needed to tell him at that moment.

"I love you," I said, looking him in the eyes to let him know that I was serious. Then, I smiled to garnish the seriousness with lightheartedness.

Stiles tilted his head. "I love you too," he said, scrunching his face up at me.

I giggled and Stiles backed out of his driveway to head for my house.

I relished those moments, the moments where there was no wolf drama. Those kinds of moments had become rare lately with all of the drama going on with Derek and his crew. Sometimes, I forgot that I was a teenager and that I needed laughter, playfulness, and a little fun every now and then just like every other teenager. Stiles helped keep that in my life most of the time. Without him, I probably would not have felt as stress-free as I did at that moment, and, for that, I truly did love him, even though I would love Stiles regardless.

When we reached my house, I smiled at Stiles and got out of the car. Smiling at each other was a way we said "goodbye" sometimes, probably because we never wanted to say the actual words. Those words meant that we would be apart, and me and Stiles were always stronger and better in every way when we were together.

I unlocked the door and walked into the house. Stiles was waiting on me to get in before he drove off. I waved to signal that he could go, which he proceeded to.

The house was empty. It was the nighttime, so my mother was at work. I hadn't left a message for Allison on her window because of the great plans I had for her after the bonfire. I decided that holding off on our "midnight meetings" would make it all the more special. I began to regret my decision, though, after I thought about the worry she might feel, as we had been meeting up every night in the forest preserve. As if by fate, I felt my phone vibrate and saw that it was a text message from Allison asking if everything was alright with a smiling emoticon. I sent her a response telling her that I couldn't meet her tonight because I was tired. I walked up the stairs to my room and dropped my backpack on the floor. I unzipped my jacket and tossed it aside, kicking my shoes off after I got into my bed. I really was tired, and I felt myself begin to slowly fall asleep a few minutes later, still wearing my jeans and t-shirt. I started to contemplate again on how I would woo Allison. It was Friday night, so I had a couple of days to concoct a plan. I don't know why I was so dead set on impressing her after the bonfire. It just seemed kind of right; bonfires seemed pretty romantic. I may not have been the smartest guy, but I sometimes did great things when I used my heart instead of my mind, and with the way my heart inflated around Allison, I was confident that it'd be effortless to follow its beats all the way to a showing of affection that would pluck her heartstrings in a melodic symphony when the time came. I inevitably dreamt of her. They say you dream of the things that were occupying the most space in your mind before you drifted off into sleep.


	2. Triangle

I awoke to the customary chirping of birds just outside my window...which was open. I never left my window open while I slept. With all of the werewolf stuff going on, there was no way that I could do it without feeling paranoid, so I stopped sleeping with it agape. Why was it open, then? I quickly hopped out of bed to get my baseball bat that I always grabbed when I felt like I was in danger. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw a figure sitting in my chair. Before I could become violent, I realized that it was Derek.

"Derek! _What_ are you doing here?" I asked, appalled that he sneaked in through my bedroom window while I was asleep.

"I need to talk to you," he answered as if he had done nothing wrong.

"And sneaking in through my window was the _only _way?" I asked in disbelief.

"It's important. I need you to help me and Issac chain up Erica and Boyd. They're getting better at controlling themselves during a full moon, but they're still too dangerous not to have at least some light chain cladding."

"Okay," I agreed, yawning and stretching. "So, what time are we gonna start," I asked as I turned my back to him to see what time was displayed on my alarm clock.

When I turned back around to hear his answer, he was gone. Derek was always disappearing. It just added to the large amount of mysteriousness that he already exuded.

It was 11:15 A.M. and a Saturday. I needed to pay a visit to the shopping mall to buy a gift to give to Allison on Sunday night. To my surprise, my mom was gone with the car. She was probably at the grocery store. She sometimes ran errands instead of coming straight home from work. I sent Stiles a text message asking if he was awake yet. Stiles slept late on Saturdays sometimes.

A few minutes later, my phone was vibrating; it was Stiles calling.

"Hey, dude," he said immediately after I answered, before I could even say "hello".

"Uh, hey. I said, flustered by his quick response this early in the morning. It took me a lot longer to "wake up" in the morning than Stiles. I wasn't surprised, though. Sometimes, it seemed like Stiles had sugar and caffeine flowing through his veins instead of blood. "Can you take me to the mall? My mom has the car."

"Sure, buddy. Just freshen up; I can smell your wolf-y morning breath through the phone," he said before hanging up. Stiles could probably tell I had just woken up because of how slow I was talking. I smiled at my friend's keen observation of me and headed for my bathroom.

As I was looking in the mirror after taking a shower, I started to experiment with my damp hair. Maybe I could have a new, nice hairstyle for Sunday night. Not long after I'd started, I rolled my eyes at myself and decided that my hair was fine the way it always was. I knew that Allison would never want me to change. She had told me herself that she loved me just the way I was.

I quickly got dressed and browsed the internet for a while as I waited for Stiles to get to my house. I was looking up things to make the night after the bonfire romantic. I could take her to dinner, but that was too typical. I needed to do something for her that was as spectacular as she was. That was when it appeared to me: a picnic. I knew that Allison loved cutesy things like that. We could have a picnic at the forest preserve on Sunday night. The fact that it was gonna be the nighttime would make it all the more romantic, I thought. I hadn't thought about the fact that, even though we'd be at the bonfire together, we wouldn't be _together_. We were still having to pretend like we weren't madly in love in order to keep Allison's family from bisecting me. It made me feel a little down. I was so tired of pretending. I wanted things to be back to the way they used to be, when me and Allison could kiss and cuddle in public without a care or worry in the world. I was getting tired of only being able to see her in one place (the forest preserve) and during one time (the nighttime). It was truly wearing on me.

I snapped out of my state of deep thought after I heard the sound of Stiles' distinctive car horn. I quickly grabbed my wallet and phone and headed out the door.

After I got into the car, I was silent. Stiles still hadn't pulled off, so I turned my head to look at him. He was looking at me with analytical eyes.

"Hmm. What's wrong with you?" he asked, seemingly certain that I had something on my mind.

"It's nothing: just Allison stuff. You know."

"Well, you couldn't shut up about her yesterday, so what the heck could be wrong now?" he asked as he pulled off from in front of my house.

"It's just...Stiles, I'm tired of hiding all the time."

"Oh my god. Are you coming out to me? Is it Danny? You and Danny have a thing going on don't you? Oh my god; I knew it!"

"Stiles, no," I responded, not amused.

"Sorry." Stiles tried to get serious, which he was terrible at. The only time I ever saw him become serious was when there was imminent danger or when has was talking about his mom, which he hardly ever did.

"What's this about hiding?" he asked.

"You know, how me and Allison can't go public anymore."

"In all honesty, Scott, PDA isn't really welcome by much of anyone, especially me, so I don't see the big deal about only being able to make out in the privacy of your own homes...or, uh, cars, in you guys' case."

"This isn't about making out. I'm talking about the little things, like holding her hand or pushing her hair back from her face." I smiled a little as I remember how sweet it felt to do those things. "As a matter of fact, you can even forget all of that stuff too. How about the fact that I can't even _talk _to her when we're in public? Do you know how it feels not to be able to talk to the person you love?"

"Well, actually, I kind of do."

"Stiles, Lydia doesn't count; she just ignores you."

"Thanks for reminding me, asshole."

"Sorry. I'm just in a tough spot right now."

Stiles shot me a caring smile before he zipped into the parking space that was nearest to mall's entrance.

"Hey, I never asked; why are we here, exactly?" he questioned.

"Oh. I need to buy something for-"

"For Allison," he finished for me.

I blushed a little when I realized that I talked to him about Allison more than anything else, and now I was dragging him to the shopping mall to buy something for none other than that very girl. I knew that couldn't feel good for Stiles. He said he understood that she was my girlfriend and that she was naturally a priority of mine, but _I _didn't like it. _I _didn't like the fact that I felt like I was neglecting him. Even if it didn't bother _him_, it bothered _me._

We got out of the car and walked toward the entrance. I took quick steps to get ahead of Stiles. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow as I passed him up. He realized why I'd walked ahead of him when he saw me holding the door open for him. I smiled innocently as he walked through the door. It was only several seconds later that I realized it was a mistake. I called myself trying to be friendly to Stiles to show him that Allison wasn't the only one who mattered to me, but instead it came off as a plain oddity. Holding the door open for someone wasn't friendly; it was polite.

"Which store do you wanna go to first?" asked Stiles.

"Let's go to the department store around the corner from the fountain."

Stiles nodded, and we casually walked through the mall toward our destination. The mall was a fairly large size. It was anchored by four department stores and had two levels. It was fairly crowded that day. Considering that it was a Saturday, that came as no big surprise. We saw and waved to a few friends that we recognized from school. We walked through the large, rectangular opening that served as an entrance to the department store, bordered on each side by theft-prevention sensors. The area where you first entered was the bedding department.

"So, Scott, what ya gonna get her?"

"I don't know. I'm not good at these sorts of things. There's bound to be something good in here, though."

We passed many items that Allison would enjoy owning as we searched the store for a proper gift, but, for some reason, none of them seemed like they would be sufficient. I started to feel ill. Why couldn't I find her a good gift? These all seemed like nice things, but just not nice enough. Why? I needed to go home. I wasn't in my right mind. Stiles must have seen it on my face because he was starting to appear concerned.

"Scott, are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. Let's just get out of here."

Stiles didn't complain about wasting his time driving me here, probably because he didn't wanna make me feel any worse. After we left the mall, I felt significantly better.

"I don't know what happened to me in there. I started to feel sick," I said as we got into his Jeep.

"Maybe it's a wolf thing?" he guessed.

"I don't know. Can you come home with me. I feel like I need you there."

"Okay. Are we gonna watch a movie?" he asked.

"Yeah; actually, we are," I answered cheerily.

"Awesome." He was genuinely happy about it.

We stopped by Stiles' house to pick up a few of his favorite films. I looked at some of his posters while I lied on his bed. Most of them were for action movies.

"Are you done yet?" I asked, becoming impatient.

"Yeah, I guess so. These look good?" Stiles flashed me two handfuls of action films.

"They look awesome, Stiles, now let's go," I answered, not caring what movies he chose because I was just ready for him to be finished searching. He shot me a dirty look, knowing that I was answering carelessly. We gathered our things and left out the door.

"I think I'm gonna ask Derek if he knows what might have happened to me back at the mall," I said to Stiles from the passenger seat of his car.

"If I was you, I would avoid speaking to him at all costs. If you haven't noticed, he's kind of a jerk."

"Yeah, but he's a jerk with a lot of answers."

Stiles pulled into my driveway and shut off the car. We walked up to the door and I went in one of my pants pockets for my keys. After located them, I unlocked the door. We went inside and up the stairs to my bedroom.

"Which one do you wanna watch first?" Stiles asked.

"Uh, doesn't matter," I answered.

Stiles shrugged and grabbed the first movie he felt inside of his bag. Stiles put the movie in and got into bed with me. We watched the movie and chatted for about half an hour before Stiles protested.

"I'm bored. It's Saturday night. Why are we at home watching a movie?" he asked.

"What else is there to do?" I responded, curious as to where he thought we could go.

"Find a party, maybe. Duh."

"Who's having a party?"

"I don't know," he answered. His face began to look sad.

"Oh. Crap. Stiles, if you really wanna go to a party we can find one."

"No. It's not that. Scott, you would tell me if something was bothering you, right?"

"Yeah. Totally, dude. But, nothing is bothering me," I said, not understanding his point.

"Well, you do know I can take care of myself, right? I don't need you to settle for hanging with me just because you don't want me to feel neglected."

"What?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Stiles, I'm here with you because I wanna be; trust me. What makes you think I'm doing this for your sake?"

"Well, it's just that, like when you held the door for me at the mall, it seems like you feel as if you need to please me. Scott, I know you care about me, and boring yourself by watching a movie with me on a Saturday night is pointless."

"Stiles, I will admit that me holding the door for you was a weird attempt at showing you that I love you, dude, but this, me being here, is not. I _want _to be here."

"But how could you, Scott?" Stiles was a little louder now. "How could you wanna be here when right now you could be making out with Allison or fighting crime with Derek and his pack? Huh? How could you?"

"Stiles, first of all, I see Allison almost every night. I don't need to be with her every waking moment. Secondly, being with Derek isn't fun; it's awful. I'm risking my life most of the time when I'm doing werewolf crap."

"But, it's so much more exciting than this," he said.

"Stiles, look at me." I grabbed his jaw and forcibly turned his face to mine. I saw the sadness in his eyes.

"Do you know how much I love you?" I asked sternly. "Dude, I love you more than I love myself. It's insane," I said, laughing a little.

"I love you too, Scott. I just hope you're not ever doing things you don't wanna do just because you feel like you have an obligation to spend time with your best friend."

I stared into his eyes. "Can I kiss you?" I asked.

"What?" he responded frantically.

"I wanna kiss you," I repeated.

"Scott, are you gay?"

"No," I turned away from him, wondering what was wrong with me.

"Hey, Scott? Why do you wanna kiss me?"

"Dude, I wanna show you just how much I'm enjoying being here with you so you won't think I'm settling."

Stiles looked like he was thinking.

"I don't need you to _kiss_ me just to show me that," he said, obviously confused.

"Yeah, I know," I answered quickly.

"Well, why do you wanna kiss me?" He looked terribly puzzled.

"I love you, Stiles. I love you a lot. I don't completely understand my urge to kiss you right now, but it's strong."

"I love you too, Scott." He seemed to contemplate something for a few seconds. "I'm gonna kiss you, but just so you can see how you feel afterward, okay?"

Before I could respond, he leaned in and pecked me on the lips softly.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"I don't know what's going on with me, Stiles. I just wanted to kiss you, and I still do."

Stiles leaned in and pecked me on the lips two more times.

"There. Now you have. We'll figure out what's wrong with you tomorrow. I just need to go home right now because you have my head all messed up, but, Scott, you already know that, if you do like me or something, we're still best friends and I still love you. We can work through anything, alright?"

"Okay," I said, smiling weakly.

Stiles got out of the bed, put his jacket on, and started to grab his things.

"I guess I'll bring a condom next time, just in case you need to sort out more feelings," he said jokingly as he left my room. I heard him descend the stairs, followed by the sound of the front door opening and closing.

I thought about what had just happened. Why did I want to kiss Stiles? I wasn't gay, but I loved Stiles. It was okay to love your best friend. As a matter of fact, most best friends loved each other. Kissing, though, was something that best friends did not do with each other. I could not figure out what was going on in my own head. Then, I thought about Allison. Wasn't kissing Stiles technically cheating on her? I started to feel guilt build up inside of me. I had always promised myself that I would never cheat on Allison. I came to the conclusion that I was gonna have to tell her what happened between Stiles and I. She deserved to know.


	3. Bound

Just as I was about to fall asleep on that muddled Saturday night, I heard Derek's distinct howl. It sounded as if it was near. I quickly hopped out of my bed and peered through my window. I was surprised to see Derek outside until I remembered what he'd told me; he said that he would need help chaining up Boyd and Erica that night.

I groaned miserably and started to put my clothes on. I was mentally exhausted from earlier, and I did not need this werewolf drama to wear on me even more. I went down the stairs and opened the door to leave, but it caught me by surprise when I saw Stiles standing there with his fist up, presumably because he was about to knock on the door.

"Stiles?" I asked, stunned by his presence.

Before Stiles could explain himself, Derek came up from behind him.

"What the hell is _he_ doing here, Scott?" Derek asked angrily.

"Uh, I don't know," I responded, dumbfounded.

"He's just gonna get in the way. Go home, Stiles," he said with a frown.

"Don't talk to him like that!"

I was surprised at myself for getting that angry. Derek and Stiles were looking at me with flabbergasted expressions. I looked at them frantically and pushed past Derek toward his Camaro.

As I sat in Derek's car, I watched the interaction between him and Stiles from afar. I could tell that he was talking to Stiles in a more humane manor, obviously minding my outburst. Stiles nodded in understanding, got back into his Jeep, and drove off.

"What did you say to him?" I asked Derek as he got in the driver's seat.

"I just explained to him that I needed you right now, and whatever he wanted to talk to you about would have to wait."

"Good," I said, looking at him with fierce eyes that warned him not to ever talk to Stiles that way again.

"What is going on with you?" he asked grotesquely. "Scott, look at your eyes."

I peered into the passenger-side mirror to see my eyes glowing a familiar yellow.

Derek was looking at me, appearing to be deep in thought.

"Do you have a theory?" I asked after he hadn't said anything for a while.

"Yeah, but it's too early to tell. Although, I do have a question. Your answer will be vital to me figuring out what was going on with your eyes."

I waited for him to ask.

"Uh, Scott, are you gay?"

"What? How is that gonna help?"

He looked at me silently for a few seconds, knowing that I'd figure out what he was hinting at.

"Well, I'm sure you'll be disappointed to know that your theory has an impairment: I'm not gay."

He shrugged and started to drive.

"That's all? A shrug?"

"Well, if you're not gay, you can't possibly be in love with Stiles, which was my theory. You know how you're always so protective over Allison? That's how you were acting about Stiles back there."

I pondered.

"Of course I'm protective over him; he's my best friend."

"Scott, me and you both know that you've always been protective over Stiles, but you've never become so malicious over him."

I analyzed my actions in my mind. It was true; I really _hadn't_ ever become that rabid over Stiles before. I postponed trying to decipher what had happened and decided it would be best to focus on the task at hand: binding Erica and Boyd.

We pulled up to the building where Derek hid out. When we walked in, I saw Boyd and Erica sitting side-by-side.

"Finally. Now, let's get this over with," Erica said, standing from her chair and passing Boyd a handful of chains.

Derek started walking toward her. "You can do Boyd," he told me.

Boyd flashed me smile. I went over to him, took the chains from his hands, and started to wrap him in the first one.

"Scott, did you ever need this during the full moon?" he asked.

"Well, no, but only because I always had Allison."

"Wow. You must really love her."

His words made me freeze.

"Scott, are you okay?" He asked, bewildered at my sudden immovability. "If it's something I said, I'm sorry. I probably shouldn't have been asking such personal questions anyway."

"No. No, I was just thinking about something." I smiled to let him know it was alright.

His words, what he'd said, they made me assess my feelings. He was right; I really must have loved Allison if she kept me from changing during the full moon. If I loved her, why did Stiles and I kiss? It was too much to think about at that moment.

"Derek, I have to go," I said hazily as I walked out.

"Scott, wait. You didn't even finish Boyd," I heard him call behind me.

I walked all the way home. Boyd's words rang in my head the entire way. After I got home, I got straight into my bed, only removing my shoes. I just laid there, looking at the white ceiling. That was when I remembered that Stiles was trying to talk to me earlier. I looked at my clock. It was past one o'clock in the morning. To call Stiles at that time would have been completely inconsiderate. I tried to fall asleep, to no avail. I changed into some pajama pants and a white t-shirt, hoping that indoor clothing would help me sleep. They didn't help. I wanted to call Stiles so bad to see what he'd wanted. The concern overtook me and I dialed his number. It took him longer than usual to pick up.

"Hello?" he answered, sounding like he had just woken up.

"Did I wake you? I'm sorry, dude. I was just dying to know what you wanted to talk about earlier before Derek sent you home."

It made me angry when I remembered how blatantly Derek had told Stiles to leave.

"You couldn't have waited until later to ask me?" He sounded puzzled.

"I don't know. Something came over me and I needed to know right now. So, what was it anyhow?"

Stiles was silent for a moment.

"It's not really something I can tell you over the phone. It's way too personal."

"It's not like anyone can hear us," I responded, confused as to why he was concerned.

"Yeah, but it's something that I'd rather say to your face, you know?"

"I guess so," I said, still questioning whether or not I truly understood what he meant.

"Try not to worry about it and get some rest."

"Okay. I love you." I found myself telling Stiles that I loved him without even thinking about it lately.

"I love you too, Scott."


	4. Undefined

I called Stiles the minute I woke up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Stiles. Get over here so we can talk. You really left me hanging last night."

After a few seconds he responded.

"Okay."

I was anxious to know what Stiles wanted to tell me. It sounded so serious. Maybe I wanted to know so bad because I was concerned, or maybe it was for the reason that I kept pushing to the back of my mind: because I was hoping that he'd tell me he was in love with me. How could I have possibly wanted Stiles to be in love with me? That didn't even make sense. I was in love with Allison. Maybe I was just greedy for love. Even if that was the case, it still wouldn't make sense. Why would a straight male want his male best friend to be in love with him?

The doorbell rang. I quickly walked down the stairs to answer the door. It was Stiles. He looked bleak.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just go up to your room, okay?"

"Alright," I uttered, concerned.

Stiles sat on my bed.

"So, what's up?" I asked.

"Scott..." He didn't finish.

"Yes?"

"I don't know what's wrong with me."

"_Nothing_ is wrong with you. Trust me," I said looking him up and down.

"I didn't mean physically, you perv," he said, finally cracking a nymph of a smile.

For some reason, those words didn't leave my lips as a joke, even though I intended for them to.

"I mean, in here," he said, tapping one of his temples.

"Oooh," I said, feeling dumb.

"Anyway, the reason I'm saying this is because I kissed you last night," he admitted.

"That's simple; you were helping out a confused friend," I responded.

"That's not all," he continued.

I waited for the maraschino cherry on top.

"Scott, I think I liked it," he said, tearing up slightly.

Something inside me was jumping for joy, but it was smothered by my undying concern for my friend who was on the verge of tears. I hugged him tightly.

"It's okay, Stiles. You will _always_ have me. I would die before I let anything happen to you."

"But, Scott, I'm not gay. Like, what the hell, dude?"

"I know, Stiles. I'm really confused too. I mean, I'm the one who asked to kiss you."

Stiles laughed miserably. "What the hell are we doing, Scott?"

I sighed. "I don't know, Stiles."

That was the last thing I said before I planted one on him.

"Scott, you're just making it worse," he said, pushing me away.

"Let me love you, Stiles. I don't care about anything else," I said pecking him on the lips again.

"No, Scott. No," he said, pushing me away again.

"This isn't right," he protested.

"What isn't right?" I asked.

"Us. We're not right. We're _best friends_, Scott."

"What is it that you're denying? Do I make you horny?" I asked.

I put my hand under his shirt and started to kiss his neck as I rubbed his flat belly.

"What are you doing?" he asked, not trying very hard to push me away.

"Oh my god. I do make you horny. You're barely pushing me. Stiles, I can take your virginity right now."

"The reason I'm not really pushing you is because it feels good, Scott. I won't deny that." He laughed. "Look at us, Scott. You're sitting here kissing my neck and trying to take my virginity," he said, trying hard not to let me hear him moan.

After I didn't stop, he slapped me.

"That doesn't bother me, Stiles."

"Scott, I'm leaving."

I felt disappointed as the taste of his neck left my mouth.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Home. I have _a lot_ to think about, obviously," he responded.

I pointed to the bulge in my pants.

"God dammit, Scott. Is this just one big joke to you? We can't just have sex. Are you even gay? I'm not," he said angrily.

My grin turned into a sad expression. Stiles walked over to me and gave me a lengthy peck on the lips, which made me smile again.

"Scott, we can't do this. There are too many complications, like Allison, and I don't like guys, Scott."

He left the room. Then, he left the house.

He obviously liked guys, otherwise, he wouldn't have enjoyed my seduction. My mind went into a dark place as I realized what I was facing. I had to figure out what I was going to do about Allison and why I was attracted to Stiles even though I was straight. It was a lot to think about at 10:13 A.M., so I held off. That was when I remembered that the bonfire would be that night. If I was going to figure out what was going on with me and Allison, I had a very limited amount of time to do it: about ten hours. It was all going way too fast.

I didn't know what I was thinking when I was trying to convince Stiles to have sex with me. It was like an impulse. It was like somewhere deep in my mind I had convinced myself that having sex with Stiles would cause him to embrace our bond on a deeper level. Then, there was another problem; I wasn't gay. I still did not find guys attractive, just like I hadn't found them attractive before, but, somehow, Stiles turned me on more than Allison did. I was so confused.

I drove to Stiles' house in my mom's car, knowing that he would be there. With that much on his mind, he wouldn't have been able to leave his house. I saw his car in his driveway and smirked at how well I knew my best friend. I sent him a text message that pleaded him to let me in so I could talk to him. He responded by saying that he needed to be alone at the moment. I immediately started to climb his house to reach one of his bedroom windows. He wasn't looking at the window when I got to it, so he didn't see me there. I watched his demeanor. He had his face buried in his pillow in what looked like a fit of frustration brought on by conflicted emotions. I lightly tapped on his window. His head sprang up from its burial and faced the window.

"Scott?" he asked loudly.

I nodded.

He walked up to the window and opened it.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine. You shouldn't have been spying on me anyway, you creep."

"Why did you look so upset?"

"Think about what just happened earlier and answer your own question," he responded.

"Yeah, but, specifically, what was bothering you?"

"Scott, I really wanted to have sex with you. I _loved_ it when you were kissing my neck. I even considered masturbating to relieve the sexual pressure I felt after I left you there horny and alone."

I started to kiss his neck again.

"Oh, not this again." Stiles pushed me away once again. "I already explained to you that I'm not gay. I'm not really interested in you kissing on me since you're a guy."

"Stiles, that's such a lie," I said matter-of-fact-ly.

"Yeah, well, it should be the truth. Scott, why aren't you trying to help me? Instead, you're just making it worse by continually doing sexual stuff to me."

"Help you with what, though? I don't see the issue."

"Once again, I'm not gay and you have a girlfriend whom you're madly in love with. I would also say that you not being gay is also an issue, but, at this point, I'm not so sure that you're even straight."

"I am straight. Stiles, you're so amazing that, when I see you, I don't see a guy; I just see someone that I wanna love and please in every way imaginable."

Stiles stared at me, making it clear that what I'd said reached him emotionally.

"I love you," he said.

"I love you too," I said back without a hint of doubt in my voice.

"We still can't do anything, though, 'cause you're still with Allison and I'm still straight. We are not about to throw caution to the wind just because I, for whatever insane reason, think I want to be more than your best friend. I can't believe I'm even saying this right now. Scott, I'm not gay."

"Screw the gay stuff. You want my love, and I sure as hell wanna show you how much of it I've got for you," I said sternly.

"Scott, when did you become so good with words? Like, seriously, I'm just craving your touch every time you say something poetic like that."

I lied on his bed on my back and pulled him on top of me. I started to unbuckle my pants.

"What the _hell_ are you doing?" he asked, sitting just below the bulge in my pants.

I ignored him and continued to undo my pants. Just as I was about to unzip them, he grabbed my hand and stopped me.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he asked, sounding slightly terrified.

"Nothing. Let go of my hand; I want you to see it. Hopefully, seeing it will get you motivated."

He just looked at me with eyes that begged me to see things from his perspective.

"When are we gonna do it?" I asked, frustrated.

"Scott, when did we start doing it? I am _very_ confused right now. Having sex with you would probably make my head explode."

"Because it would feel so good?" I asked, hopeful.

"No, because it would confuse me even more than I already am. When did you become a big, fat cheater, anyhow?"

My eyes shot open in a small panic as I remembered that I _was_ still in a relationship with Allison and, despite all of this, I did still love her...a lot.

"Sorry, Scott. I didn't mean to make a low blow; I was just trying to say something to turn you off 'cause you were getting mad horny."

"No, but, you're right. This _is_ cheating. It's major cheating," I said, astounded at myself.

Stiles look relieved and climbed off of me.

"Well, technically, you didn't cheat because I stopped you before you could hurt my butt," he said sarcastically yet seriously.

"It doesn't matter. I've been kissing you and trying to get you into bed. Oh my god. Allison's gonna die of a broken heart."

Stiles looked sympathetic and lied next to me. "It's okay, dude. It's not your fault."

"You're right. It's _your _fault. Why do you have to be so cute, huh?" I said, cupping his cheeks and kissing his lips softly.

"You're doing it again!" he yelled.

"See! I'm doing it without thinking now. I have got to tell Allison."

I pulled out my phone to dial her number.

"Whoa." Stiles put his hand over my screen. "A phone call? Really? Could you be any more inhumane?" he asked.

"Well, I've got to tell her now. The guilt is eating me alive."

I pushed his hand off of my screen and tried to dial her number again. Probably after considering that I was much stronger than him, Stiles tried to stop me by rubbing my crotch.

"That's how you're gonna stop me? By trying to get me horny?" I asked.

I rolled my eyes and continued to type the letters of Allison's name to find her in my contact list. Stiles started to unzip my pants, which stopped me. He put his hand into my boxers. His hand was cold, but it felt good.

"I thought you said you didn't wanna do this?" I asked.

"I don't. Scott, you can't do Allison like that. I know it burns, but just wait till later, when you can see her in person," he told me softly.

I put my forehead against his. His words were so soothing.

"I love you," I said.

"I love you too." He softly kissed my lips.

"Scott, what are we?"

"I don't know, but I feel like if anyone tried to touch you right now, even to hug you or give you a high five, I would murder them without a second thought."


	5. Revelations

It was the night of the bonfire. It baffled me to think that, at the beginning of that weekend, I was actually _excited_ for the bonfire. Now, it was just terrifying. To think about what I had to tell Allison panicked me. I felt like I needed my inhaler again. After all the love I showed her and that we showed to each other, how could I possibly explain _cheating_ on her? The true explanation was that I was lovestruck over Stiles, but I couldn't tell _her_ that; it would break her heart. What it boiled down to, though, was that her heart was gonna be broken no matter how I explained it to her.

I was gonna dress nicer than I usually did and put on some cologne for the bonfire, but that was back when I was planning on making it romantic for Allison. I decided to just put on one of my usual outfits. I heard Stiles pull up outside. He honked his horn to let me know he was there, obviously still not remembering that my keen werewolf hearing allowed me to know when he arrived even without him sounding his horn.

After I got into his car, he wasted no time bringing up the subject of interest.

"So, how are you gonna break it to her?" he asked.

"I don't know," I answered simply and honestly.

"Are you still gonna do the romantic thing?"

"Of course not."

"Sorry for asking. It was a stupid question."

"No, it wasn't," I said and kissed him.

"Scott, you can't keep making it seem like everything I do is right just because you love me."

I blushed a little. Stiles pull off from in front of my house and headed for the bonfire.

It was gonna be in the park near the forest preserve. Apparently, Jackson was one of the guys who organized it every year and brought the fire pit. They couldn't actually light a pile of branches on fire in a public park.

As we pulled up to it, I saw that there were about nine people there already, none of which were Allison. It relieved me a little, but the fear soon returned when I realized that her not being there was just gonna give me more time to suffer from anxiety.

"Its okay, Scott. You can do this," said Stiles lovingly rubbing my back in a useless attempt at calming my nerves.

"Stiles, do you realize what I have to do? I'm not afraid of her reaction. What I _am_ afraid of is what I'm about to end. How could me and Allison go from marriage potential to this so quickly? I feel like me ending this is almost premature."

"Ending this? How do you even know she's gonna break up with you? Are _you_ planning on breaking up with her?"

He was right. No one had said anything about breaking up. When I thought about how much I loved Stiles, it naturally seemed like the right decision.

"Actually, I wasn't planning on breaking up with her, but, if she doesn't break up with me, I'm going to."

"Why? I thought you loved her."

"But I love you more."

Stiles looked touched and gently pressed his soft, pink lips against mine. I always loved Stiles' full lips. They made kissing him that much more enjoyable. Saying that I loved him more honestly just slipped out of my mouth. I had always considered my love for them equal, but who was I kidding? I obviously must have loved Stiles more if I was considering breaking up with Allison for him. Although, it didn't really make sense to break up for someone when you didn't even know if that person loved you back the same way. What breaking up with her would give me, though, would be the entitlement to pursue Stiles freely.

We pulled into the parking lot of the park. Just as we were about to get out of the car, I turned to see Isaac with his hands cupped around his face, trying to see into the Jeep.

"What are you doing?" I asked him as I got out of the car.

"I was trying to see if anyone was in here. We saw this car pull up about ten minutes ago, and I recognized it as Stiles'. You guys still hadn't came over to the bonfire, so I was seeing if you guys were even in here."

I didn't know if he had seen our kiss or not.

"Oh. Well, here we come," I said, smiling.

The three of us walked over to the bonfire.

"Party's here," said Lydia.

Jackson rolled his eyes and took a sip out of his beer.

I felt nervous throughout the night, as I was anticipating Allison's arrival.

She got there about fifteen minutes after Stiles and I did. I felt myself hyperventilating slightly. Stiles must have recognized it because he rubbed my leg to calm me. Jackson raised an eyebrow at the way Stiles was touching me. Stiles saw him and took his hand away, looking embarrassed. I gave Jackson a dirty look and put Stiles' hand back on my leg.

"Screw him," I told Stiles.

As Allison walked over to the fire, I mentally prepared myself. She looked so happy. She was probably excited. Her good mood was gonna make it that much harder to break it to her. She smiled and waved to everyone, then took a seat next to me. Stiles was on the other side of me. That seating arrangement was a lot like the emotional situation I was in.

"Hey," she said and kissed me on the lips.

I took a look at Stiles' facial expression. He was looking away. It obviously hurt him to see Allison kiss me. That was when I knew that I had to do it, for Stiles.

"Hey, can we go talk privately for a minute?" I asked her.

"Sure," she responded with a smile.

I grabbed Stiles' hand and led him away from the bonfire with Allison and I.

"Whoa. What's that?" asked Allison, laughing and referring to me holding Stiles' hand, as I was still holding it after we got to the private area.

Stiles was looking all around, appearing to be a nervous wreck. I felt the sweat forming on his palm.

"It's okay," I told him.

Allison laughed.

"Wow. I knew you guys were good friends, but holding hands? Well, whatever floats your boat, I guess."

She seemed totally clueless as to what was happening there.

"Allison, I need to tell you something," I said.

"Well, it must be serious, considering your tone of voice. What is it, Scott?"

I opened my mouth three times to tell her, but, each time, no words were omitted. That was when Stiles must have decided that it would be up to him to tell her. He must not have been able to say anything either because, instead of telling her anything, he just kissed me.

Allison's face looked dreary. Her eyes kept oscillating between us.

"What is going on here?" she asked.

"Allison." That was all I could manage to say to her at that moment.

"You know, I had a feeling deep down within myself that something was going on with you. You suddenly weren't texting or calling me as much and suddenly you became a lot less physical; all you wanted to do now was talk, but, this, I did not expect."

She sounded angry.

"Allison," I started.

"No. Save it. The _least_ you could have done was break up with me _before_ you started...this," she said, pointing her finger at me and Stiles holding hands.

"Scott, are you gay?" she asked.

"Why does everyone keep asking me that? Does it even matter?"

"No, Scott; it doesn't matter, but what does matter is that I'm a _girl_ and Stiles is a _guy_. Were you even attracted to me in the first place, or was I just some sort of experiment?" she ranted.

"No, Allison. It's not like that at all."

"It's completely like that! You know what? I don't even care. Just stay away from me."

She walked all the way to her car and sped off.

Stiles was looking at my face, probably to see how I was feeling. I felt filthy. I felt like the biggest loser in the world. I took an _amazing_ girl's heart and just...shattered it.

"Stiles, can we just go."

He nodded in approval.

As we walked to Stiles' car, it seemed like everyone around the bonfire was looking at us, as they had seen Allison speed off. Stiles quickly reversed out of the parking space and drove off.

I rolled my window down. I needed air. I felt like I was suffocating. Stiles glanced over at me sympathetically.

"You did the right thing, Scott."

"Sure I did the right thing by telling her, but I did the wrong thing by cheating on her."

"Yeah. I kinda feel like your dirty mistake."

Stiles started crying.

"This is all my fault, Scott. I should have never led you on, and now your amazing girlfriend is gone. I ruined your life, Scott."

We were sitting at a red light. I kissed him deeply.

"Don't _ever_ say that again. I would do anything for you Stiles. I _love_ you. I _freaking_ love you," I said and kissed him again.

Stiles was too busy kissing me to realize that the light had changed.

"Let's go to your house, okay?" I asked him.

He nodded.

We pulled into his driveway. After he unlocked the front door, I led him by his hand up to his bedroom. I shut the bedroom door behind us.

"Let's take a shower," I suggested.

"Let's?" he asked

"Yeah, as in both of us," I responded.

He didn't say anything. He just started taking off his clothes. I did the same. While we were both naked I grabbed him and gave him a deep kiss. We got into the shower. I washed his body, spending ample time on his backside. He moaned as I rubbed my hands up and down his smooth body, marveling at his creamy white skin and kissing his back. We started to kiss again. Stiles put his arms over my shoulders. We kissed for about three minutes before we decided that it was time to end our shower. We dried off and put clothes on. I wore some of Stiles' indoor clothes since I hadn't brought any of my own. I shut off all of the lights and we got into his bed. As I lied behind Stiles, I held him tightly through the night.


	6. Public

Stiles was snoring in my face; that was what I awoke to. I remembered that, when I fell asleep, I was holding Stiles from behind. He must have shifted. He appeared to be quite the messy sleeper. It was hard for me not to find everything about him adorable, and the way he slept was no exception. I glanced over at his alarm clock. We were approaching being late for school uncomfortably quickly.

"Stiles, wake up," I said, shaking him. I had this stigma about never being too rough with him, so my attempts at shaking him awake were futile.

I placed a few kisses upon his sleeping lips. Surprisingly, they woke him. He looked at me with eyes that were still adjusting to the light of the daytime. He smiled gently.

"We're gonna be late for school," I said once more in the softest tone of voice I could muster.

The looks of relaxation and comfort on his face soon changed to a look of small panic. Stiles was hardly ever late to school, not surprising when the high marks he received were taken into consideration. I loved his brilliance.

"Let's take a shower," he said to me, repeating the words I had said to him oh-so-sensually the night before.

"Stiles, as much as I love feeling you up in the shower, we definitely do not have time to get a quick one in right now."

"I was actually suggesting that we take a shower together for the purpose of time management, not sexuality."

I blushed a little at how I hadn't recognized the innocence of his intentions. He rolled his big, brown eyes at me and proceeded to undress himself. I watched as he exposed his smooth, supple-looking body. Stiles' body was my Kryptonite; it was just right. He wasn't too skinny; he had just the right amount of body weight. He glanced at me to discover my gaze latched onto him.

"Instead of fantasizing about something that you'll probably have tonight, how about you get undressed yourself," he said to me. I smirked at the idea that I could have Stiles' body in my midst whenever I desired. "Now," he accentuated when he saw that I was smirking instead of undressing.

I took off my clothes at a heightened pace and followed Stiles toward the shower. When he turned on the water, it was cold, needing time to gain heat. I appreciated the initial frigid temperatures of the water whenever I took a shower. It was like an alternative source of caffeine in the morning. As we showered, I couldn't help but assist Stiles in cleansing his own beautiful body. I marveled at every curve that existed upon him and rubbed my hands across them, as if in an attempt at proving their unbelievable existence to myself. Even though he probably wanted to once again explain to me the limited amount of time we had to finish our shower, he instead closed his eyes. It was as if his usual pessimistic logic was locked off when he felt my touch. I started to kiss from from the bottom of his neck toward his lips. He emitted his usual, and seemingly unavoidable, moans as I sampled the flavors of his soft skin. As I reached his lips, he turned away, silently telling me that we were wasting time. He turned off the water and we stepped out to dry ourselves.

I had to wear one of Stiles' outfits to school, as, due to our abnormally lengthened shower, we no longer had the time to stop by my house to pick up some of my clothes. I opened his wooden dresser drawer to a host of unfamiliar apparel. I chose items that were most familiar to what I wore. I quickly put the clothes on, continually glancing at the time displayed on Stiles' alarm clock. I noticed him leaning against the door sill of his bathroom, fully dressed and apparently totally prepared to leave the house. He was obviously determined to avoid being tardy. I picked up my pace, not wanting to be the reason for unnecessary lateness.

"I'm ready," I said after I located my backpack on his bedroom floor. He smiled at me in response. We went down the stairs and left the house. We got inside of Stiles' Jeep quickly in an effort to make it to school on time.

"So, are we in a relationship?" I asked as Stiles started his engine.

"You know, Scott, earlier this week, I just knew I wasn't gay. There was no way that my sexuality had just switched like that, but, after last night, when you broke up with Allison and treated me to the best shower of my life, I realized something. I realized that you are not a guy; you're Scott, and while I may not have an attraction to _guys_, I have one hell of an attraction to Scotts."

I smiled immensely, his words reminding me of when I myself had told him something similar. Stiles zipped into the parking lot, taking his usual parking space after he saw that it was available today. I loved the little things like that that made him just a little happier. His happiness was the most important thing to me.

I thought about Stiles throughout the school day. Whenever I wasn't with him, he was in my thoughts. It made it just a little difficult to focus in some classes. The classes that we had together were almost down-right impossible to focus in, as if it wasn't already hard enough for me to stay on task in school.

We were sitting at our typical table during lunchtime. I had my chin in my hands, just staring at Stiles as he ate. He paused as he was about to put a spoonful of mandarin orange pieces into his mouth.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"You are so beautiful," I said.

He blushed a significantly more vibrant shade of pink than I had seen upon his cheeks before.

"You've got me going all blush monster over here." He was wiping his cheeks vigorously to flush them out.

I grabbed his wrists. "No. It's cute. Leave it," I said. I leaned over the table to kiss him. His head drew back, to my surprise. "Sorry. I forgot we were in school," I said.

"Wait. No. So what if we're in school? We're in a relationship, right? I only leaned back because I guess I'm just not used to us being more than besties," he said honestly. He took the initiative to repeat my actions and leaned over the table to kiss me. The kiss was short, but I felt it particularly sweet due to what it exemplified; Stiles kissed me to show me that our love was an undying one, and no school setting was going to muffle it. I placed my hand over his and smiled sweetly at his authenticity.

After our final classes, we met at Stiles' locker, just as we had planned to.

"Lacrosse practice, here we come," he said.

We walked through the empty halls toward the locker room. I grabbed Stiles' hand. To be holding his hand felt like a rightness that I had been restricting myself from for far too long. I almost felt anger toward myself for not taking the initiative to blossom our love before, but there was only so much I could have done in the past when the feelings weren't there. Perhaps they were there and I just didn't recognize them. Whatever the case, I was madly in love.

After we got to the locker room, we changed into our lacrosse uniforms and headed out to the field. It was such a familiar routine. What was not familiar, though, was how much attention I payed to Stiles as we practiced. I found myself guarding him involuntarily on numerous occasions. Sometimes, my fixation on his well-being caused my playing to become mediocre. I had been a superstar on the lacrosse field for quite a while, pretty much ever since I got the bite, and to not shine during practice was unusual behavior for me. The coach, inevitably, noticed the decrease in my focus.

"What's going on with you, McCall?" Coach Finstock asked me as I changed out of my lacrosse uniform back in the locker room.

"Nothing, Coach. I just...have a lot on my mind lately."

"Yeah. I'll say. Get it together." He walked away.

Stiles was changing next to me. He leaned in front of me to get a better view of my face.

"What are you doing?" I asked Stiles, smiling.

"Well, I _was_ trying to see how you felt about what Coach Finstock just said to you, but you kinda ruined it with the whole smiling thing. How come you get all smiley every time we interact, anyhow?"

"I don't know. You just make me so happy." I tried to lean in and kiss him.

"Whoa there, tiger," he said with his hands in front of him pushing me back.

"What? I thought we discussed this."

"We did, but...the locker room, really?"

"Yeah. Why not?"

"Well, there's a particularly heinous-looking group of guys over there that would probably make my life a living hell if they saw you kiss me."

"Why do you say that? Danny's over there and he's gay."

"Yeah, but it isn't about the gay thing. It's just that I'll never hear the end of the Scott-and-Stiles-sitting-in-a-tree jokes, you know?"

"No, I don't know." I kissed him fast so he couldn't move his head.

"Did you not listen to a word I just said?" he asked in a yelled whisper.

"Now, if anyone says anything to you, they'll have me to deal with."

"I don't need you to protect me all the time, Scott. You did that enough before we were a couple." He looked a little angry that I had blatantly disregarded his emotions.

We were almost done changing when Jackson came by and shoved Stiles. "Move," he said coldly as he continued to walk. I picked him up by his lacrosse uniform and shoved him against one of the brick walls in the locker room. I was seething with rage. "McCall, your eyes, you idiot," Jackson said as I had him against the wall. "Get yourself together before someone sees them." I dropped him and ran over to one of the mirrors to discover that my eyes were lit up in the same fierce yellow that they were when Derek had told Stiles to go home a couple of nights ago. I looked at the sink under the mirror. I turned on the faucet and splashed an ample amount of water onto my face in an attempt to calm myself. I faced the mirror again. My eyes had returned to their normal shade of dark brown. I stared at my reflection. "What's happening to me?" I asked myself quietly.


	7. Analysis

Stiles came over to me and grabbed my hand.

"Come on. We're going to Derek. We are gonna figure out what's going on with you right now."

We walked out of the locker room, through the halls toward the school's exit, and to the parking lot. We got into Stiles' car and he pulled off, headed for Derek's hideout.

After we arrived at the abandoned building, we walked inside to the sight of a shirtless Derek doing pull-ups.

"What are you doing here?" asked Derek.

"Well, that's not a very warm welcome." I responded.

"I'm just not used to seeing you here unless I need you."

"Fix my boyfriend," demanded Stiles.

"What? Your boyfriend?" asked Derek, perplexed.

"Yeah. Scott." Stiles said proudly, pointing to me.

"Oh..._oh_," said Derek as he began to understand that Stiles and I were in a relationship. "What's wrong with him?"

"He's broken."

"Broken?" asked Derek.

"Uh, let me elaborate," I interjected, giving Stiles a look in response to his questionable way of explaining my condition. "I have been going a little...crazy over Stiles lately."

"So, you're madly in love. Good for you, but it has nothing to do with you being a werewolf." Derek went back to doing his pull-ups.

"Well, that's the thing. I pinned Jackson to the wall because he shoved him earlier."

"That sounds normal. Wouldn't you have done that for Allison if he had done that to her? As a matter of fact, you would probably still do it for her."

"Yeah, but...this is different. I just know it."

"I'm gonna need more proof, then."

"Okay. How about this? What about when my eyes lit up when you told him to go home last time?"

"Yeah, but that was just one time."

"They were yellow again when I had Jackson against the wall."

For once during our conversation, Derek looked intrigued. "Really?"

I nodded in response.

"Well, I may have a theory, but I'm gonna need to run some...tests."

"Tests?" I asked, hoping he wasn't planning on causing me any grief.

"Yeah. I'll let you know how they go."

"And when are you gonna start them?"

"I'll let you know."

I rolled my eyes at his vague answer and headed back out of the hideout. Stiles and I got into his car.

"Well, he wasn't much help," said Stiles as he drove away from the building.

"Yeah. I know."

"My place?" he asked.

"Sure."

We arrived at Stiles' house. We made our way to his bedroom after we got inside. I laid on his bed, wondering what Derek's diagnosis would be.

"Are you still thinking about what Derek said?" asked Stiles.

"Yeah. How did you know?"

"You had your 'deep in thought' face on. It's really funny."

I smiled. "I love you."

He smiled back. "I love you too." He came and laid in the bed next to me, laying his head on my chest and playing with one of the buttons on his sweater that I was wearing.

"You know, Stiles, I realize something. I had been making excuses to say that my relationship with Allison wasn't going well."

"What do you mean?"

"Like, when I said that having to hide our relationship was wearing on me, it wasn't wearing on me. I was just subconsciously adding that to the list of reasons that our relationship supposedly wasn't going well."

"So, why were you doing that?"

"So I could be with you."

I saw Stiles eyes become slightly watery. He gave me a gentle, love-filled kiss on the lips. "Do you really mean that?"

"Yeah and that's not all. When I felt like I was neglecting you, it wasn't because you were my best friend, it was because I wanted to be with you. Like, when I held the door open for you, it all makes sense now. Even when I started feeling sick while I was shopping for a gift to give to Allison on the night of the bonfire, it was because I knew, deep inside myself, that I should have been buying a gift for _you_. Looking back on all of these things, it makes me realize; I used to think that my love for you and Allison was equal. It's not." I chuckled lightly at what I was about to confess to Stiles. "I used to have this really corny theory about Allison. It was that she was on an entirely different level than other girls. Like, that was why a dork like me was able to handle being her boyfriend: because she was special. I even used to call it 'The Rule of Allisons'."

"Kinda like how I said I didn't like guys, but I loved Scotts?"

"Yeah. Kinda like that," I answered endearingly. We were staring at each other for a few seconds. I slowly moved my head toward his. I captured his lips in a passionate kiss. I softly placed my hand on the back of his head as we kissed. He repositioned his body over mine. I placed my hands under his shirt, around his lower back, and started to rub up and down his back slowly.

There was a knock on the door. Stiles quickly jumped off of me, fixing his clothes. He opened the door to his father.

"Yes, Dad?" he asked, looking obviously flustered.

"Uh, I was just seeing if Scott would maybe wanna stay for dinner."

"Uh, sure," I said from Stiles bed, trying to lay in a nonchalant way to further disguise that Stiles and I had just come down from the high of a heated make-out session.

"Okay," Stiles' father said, looking at us suspiciously.

Stiles' father walked away and Stiles closed the door. He came and laid next to me heavily on his bed.

"Him, I am _not_ ready to tell about us yet. It is gonna be so weird when I tell him," he said, sighing.

"Yeah. I know," I said in response.

Half of an hour later, I was laying on Stiles bed watching TV and Stiles was browsing the internet on his laptop when his father told us through the closed door that dinner was ready. Stiles and I looked at each other, hoping that his father did not find our behavior from earlier suspicious. We both left Stiles' bedroom and proceeded to walk down the staircase, and into his dining room. I saw bags from a Chinese take-out restaurant on the table.

"My dad's not much of a cook, so we prefer to eat out," Stiles whispered to me as we approached the dining room table. We awkwardly took our seats.

"So, Scott are you Still the star of the lacrosse team," Stiles father asked as he spooned rice onto my plate.

"Yeah. I suppose so."

"Yeah. Last time I came to one of your games, you and Jackson dominated, huh?"

"Yep," I responded, smiling nervously.

"You look a little tense," Mr. Stilinski noticed.

"Oh. It's nothing. Just...nervous about the big game coming up, now that you've got me thinking about it."

"Oh, kid. I'm sure you'll have it all under control."

The reality was that I hadn't had anything under control for a long time. What I was actually nervous about, though, was the sly look on Stiles' father's face. I could tell he knew..._something_.

After we were done eating, I stood to take my plate to the kitchen.

"Oh. No, no, no," Stiles' father stopped me. "Don't worry about that."

I awkwardly placed the plate back down onto the table. I was used to taking the plate to the kitchen myself whenever I ate at Stile's house. His father was behaving oddly, compared to his usual demeanor. Stiles tapped my hand as he walked past me, signaling for me to follow him. As I was walking behind Stiles out of the dining room, Mr. Stilinski said something: "Hey, Scott?"

"Yes?" I asked, anxious to know what he was about to close his interrogation disguised as a dinner with.

"Nice sweater."

"Thanks," I responded with a smile, happy that it was something innocent.

He nodded once as a way of saying "you're welcome".

I proceeded to follow Stiles up the stairs to his bedroom.

"Well, that went better than expected," I said to Stiles cheerily as I plopped down onto his bed.

"_What_!?" he asked loudly, surprising me with his tone.

"What?" I didn't understand why he seemed upset. "He didn't say anything that even hinted toward him knowing about...us," I said smirking.

"Nice sweater?" Stiles asked, repeating what his father had said to me.

"Yeah. It was an innocent compliment. What's the big deal?"

"Scott, that's _my_ sweater you're wearing."


	8. My Feelings for You, Merely Tangible

"Well, for your sake, I think I'm gonna sleep in my own bed tonight. Take me home?" I asked, grabbing my jacket.

"Yeah. Good idea," Stiles responded.

We went down the stairs. Stiles glanced into the kitchen to see if his father was still there.

"Don't worry about it, Stiles," I said. "If your dad does somehow find out, I'll be by your side the whole way."

Stiles shot me a smile that wasn't completely genuine. We left out of the door and got into his car.

"Wanna go to the mall tomorrow, after school?" I asked.

"Sure. I don't see why not," he answered.

"Hey. Remember when I was telling about 'The Rule of Allisons'?"

"Yeah. How could I forget?"

"You bent those rules so hard that they broke," I told him, smiling.

He smiled, leaned over, and pecked me on the lips.

"Hey, can we go by Derek's again really quick?" I asked him.

"Yeah, but why?"

"I have to get at least some idea of what he has planned. It's driving me nuts."

"Uh, okay then."

Stiles started to drive in the direction of Derek's hideout. After we arrived, we went inside and saw Derek talking to Erica and Boyd.

"You again?" asked Derek.

"Yeah. You really left me hanging earlier. I need more details," I said.

"If I told you what I had planned, you would just intervene."

"Well, can you at least clear this one thing up for me?" I asked.

"Okay." Derek waited for me to ask.

"First of all, does the fact that I'm supposedly straight and in love with a guy have anything to do with me being a werewolf?"

"Well, I wouldn't say that being a werewolf is making you gay, but I do know that the love of a werewolf can defy boundaries, and gender boundaries are not exempted."

"Okay. Good enough. At least now you've answered _something_," I said before grabbing Stiles' hand and leading him out of the hideout with me.

"You're really frustrated aren't you?" Stiles asked as we entered his Jeep.

"Yeah. I just don't like not knowing what's going on, you know? Ever since I became a werewolf, I have liked to always be aware of what's happening in my life. I really hope Derek isn't planning anything too crazy."

"Don't worry," said Stiles. His voice soothed me effortlessly. I gave him a gentle kiss on the lips as we sat at a red stoplight.

"What was that for?" he asked, the blush on his cheeks able to be seen in the glow that adorned his face from the light of the street lamps outside of the car.

"You're like an angel, you know? You make me feel calm almost instantaneously."

I saw Stiles blush more.

"Sorry. I'm not trying to make you go blush monster; I'm just saying."

Stiles smiled authentically and proceeded to pull in front of my house.

"Do you know what you're gonna do if your dad brings it up to you yet?"

"Nah, but, honestly, I'm not even _that_ worried."

"Well, that's good," I said, smiling at my boyfriend's collected composure. I exited the vehicle and made my way into my house, and into my bedroom. I fell asleep almost instantly, probably due to the ample amount of thoughts that polluted my mind that night.

Stiles and I had planned that night to pay a visit to the shopping mall the next day. Stiles picked me up, as per usual, and we made our way there. We wandered until I located the store that was perfect for what I desired to purchase. It was a jewelry store. I planned to buy Stiles a gift as a showing of my affection, so I needed to be away from him when I bought it. "Wait. This isn't the jewelry store I wanted to visit," I said, lying.

I led Stiles out of that jewelry store and to another. "I'm gonna go look at the directory really quick, okay?" I asked him. He nodded and smiled in response. I tried to keep my devilish grin under wraps as I walked out of the jewelry store toward the mall directory. I glanced back at Stiles to see if he was watching me as I walked away. He wasn't, so I made a quick turn in the opposite direction of the directory toward the jewelry store that we had first visited.

I'd had my eye on a pair a dazzling sterling silver necklaces, each with a pendant that was the corresponding side of a bisected heart shape. I would buy one for me and the other for Stiles to symbolize our undying connection. They were expensive. As a matter of fact, the cost of them would make a significant dent in my savings, but it would have been so worth it for Stiles. I remembered when I had brought Stiles to the mall to purchase the gift that I'd planned on giving to Allison the night of the bonfire. That felt so wrong. This, though, buying a gift for Stiles, felt so right. There was a reason I couldn't think of anything as brilliant to purchase for Allison.

I left the jewelry store with a bag that contained the box that housed the parallel necklaces. I pondered how I would keep it hidden from Stiles. I needed to get back to him before he started to wonder where I'd sneaked off too. Luckily, I was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, so hiding the gift wasn't _too_ difficult. I disposed of the bag and the receipt. Then, I inserted the elongated decorative box that contained the two necklaces into the singular pocket on the front of my sweatshirt, which had an opening on each side.

I re-entered the jewelry store that Stiles was in, successfully attempting to appear innocent of any secret acts.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" asked Stiles.

His words surprised me. It sounded as if he'd known what I had just done until I realized that he was referring to me finding what I was looking for on the directory of the mall.

"Oh. Yeah. They don't have the store I'm looking for. Let's just get out of here."

Stiles shrugged, apparently not disappointed at the idea of leaving the mall so soon.

"Can you come sleep with me?" I asked Stiles as he pulled out of the parking space.

"Whoa. We haven't even discussed sex yet."

"That's not what I meant. I'm literally asking you to sleep with me."

"Oh. Well, in that case, don't you remember what happened last time?"

"Yeah, but that was your dad. My mom is totally clueless. She thinks I'm still in love with Allison."

"Alright then."

Stiles drove us to my house. After we got in and to my room, I shut the door.

"Scott, it's only," Stiles paused as he glanced at the alarm clock on my nightstand, "3:00 P.M. Why am I already at your house if I'm supposed to be sleeping with you?"

"Just let me go down stairs and do something really quick, okay?" I left out of the room before he could respond, softly closing the door behind me.

My mother was out, actually enjoying herself for once, having fun with her friends, so I planned to set up a surprise romantic dinner for Stiles. I knew that it wasn't dinner time, so I just set up the candles on the table and plugged in the radio. I was gonna order the food a little later. Obviously, I couldn't cook.

I made my way back upstairs to Stiles. He was asleep on my bed. I laughed inside at how adorable he was. I got into the bed with him and snuggled up behind him. I breathed out of my nose into the back of his neck. I took deeper-than-normal breathes, enjoying Stiles scent. He smelled like a newborn baby's breath: innocent. I didn't fall asleep. I wasn't tired, so I decided to turn on the television. I laid there with Stiles pulled up close to me, fast asleep, utterly content because he was there with me, in my arms.

After sitting through two movies, Stiles still hadn't awoken, but it was dinner time. I smiled because I was excited to do it for Stiles. I ordered Stiles' favorite: penne pasta with meatballs, in a seasoned tomato sauce. It took around half an hour for the food to arrive. I set it up on the table after I payed for it and took it from the deliverer at the door. I then lit the four candles that I had set up on the dining table and inserted one of my mother's smooth jazz CD's into the player of the radio. Everything looked perfect. I giddily ascended the stairs to inform Stiles of the masterpiece that awaited him. When I went into the bedroom, he was still asleep, but had apparently shifted to another position. I sat down on the bedside and French kissed him until his eyes slowly opened.

"Scott? Why do you always wake me up that way?" he asked, his voice still grungy from being freshly awake.

"I have a huge surprise waiting for you downstairs."

"I knew you were up to something. I just knew it," said Stiles, smiling.

I shrugged with a grin.

"Come on." I led him by his hand toward the surprise. After we got downstairs, I quickly released his hand and jogged across the room to press the play button on the radio and light the candles. I ran back to him and wrapped my arms around his waist from behind, resting my chin on his soft shoulder.

"So, what do you think?" I asked, anxious to see how he would react to all of it.

After a few seconds with no response, I peeked around at his face.

"Are you crying?" I asked, surprised.

He quickly wiped away his tears with the sleeves of his sweater, which were just a little too long.

"Scott, this...this is amazing." He cupped my cheeks in his cold hands and I smiled. He looked into my eyes, his eyes darting yet staying focused on mine simultaneously. "You really do love me, don't you Scott?"

"Of course," I answered huskily, grabbing his hips and shaking him a little to get my point across.

With my face still in his hands, Stiles pressed his full, pink lips into mine, applying a bit more pressure than usual.

"Wow," I said, grinning, "that was pretty intense." I laughed a little.

"I _freaking_ love you, Scott McCall."

"And I you Stiles Stilinski," I said playfully.

Stiles hugged me.

"Now, let's eat," he said.

As we ate, we conversed warmly. I noticed how beautiful Stiles looked. The candlelight showed him in a hue I had not previously noticed. He looked gorgeous. I felt slightly ashamed of myself when the thought of how much I wanted at that moment to pleasure him in my bed crossed my mind. We were experiencing a romantic moment, and I would not let my hormones deplete the sweetness of it. At that moment, I remembered to give him the gift I'd bought at the shopping mall.

"Oh, uh, Stiles," I said, snapping out of my sexual daydream. "I got you something," I continued, pulling the rectangular box out my sweater's pocket. Stiles remained silent as I handed it to him, his eyes oscillating between me and the gift. He opened the box and small tears began to come from his eyes. I moved from across the table to right next to him and wiped the two tears he had on opposite cheeks with my thumb. I then kissed his lips gently. His magnificent brown eyes were again looking into mine. I took my half of the heart necklaces and put it on, then I put his on him.

"Oh my God, Scott. I've never cried this much in my life," said Stiles, rolling his beautiful eyes, which looked even more beautiful basking in the glow of the candles' flames.

"Sorry, but this is just how much I love you," I said, shrugging.

"I guess I owe you then, huh?" he asked.

I was surprised at that suggestion.

"Of course not. Stiles, this is a gift of our love and-" I trailed off as Stiles got out of his seat and sat on my lap, facing me with his arms over my shoulders.

"I guessed I owe you then...huh?" he asked again slower.

"Only if you want to," I responded, a little nervous as I felt myself becoming aroused and knew he would soon also feel my arousal, as he was sitting on my lap.

"Say yes, you idiot," he told me, laughing.

"Um, yes?" I said reluctantly.

"What are you worried about?" he asked.

"Look. I'm just gonna be honest with you. I don't know how...gentle I could be with you in bed considering how strong my attraction is to you, and you know how strong being a werewolf has made me," I admitted.

"You're not doing anything but turning me on saying stuff like that. What's your point?" asked Stiles, obviously ready to drag me to the bedroom.

"What if I hurt you?" I asked him, trying to make him understand how serious the situation was.

"Hurt me? How?"

"I don't know. I might bruise you or something."

"God, that's so hot," he said, rubbing my crotch a little.

"Look. I'm not trying to make you more horny or anything. That's just the way it's coming out. I don't know how to explain it, but I would never forgive myself if I hurt you just for sex. Just give me some time to learn to control myself, alright, babe?"

I saw the realization come into him.

"I hate it when you're right," said Stiles. "Fine, but you have got a lot of licking to do to make up for it."

I smiled.

"Then let's go," I said, leading him back up to the bedroom by his hand.

I did do some licking that night: the kind of licking that had Stiles' face blushing and moaning from pleasure.


	9. Eclipsed

The next morning, I woke up spooning behind Stiles, as usual. I licked his ear.

"Did I make up for it last night?" I asked, mischievously.

I felt him nod and grinned into his warm back, smelling him. I dismissed my admittedly frequent act of sniffing Stiles as something innocent.

"You smell so good."

"Ew. Really? I'm morning gross," Stiles responded. "Whoa," he said, apparently feeling my engorged lower appendage pressing into his soft backside. "Is that what gets you off, my morning stank? Wow. You werewolves are so filthy and naughty."

Stiles left my bed and walked toward my bathroom. I felt a great deal of the warmth escape from the covers as he left, as well as his marvelous scent. I inhaled what I could before it would be washed away by the shower he was about to indulge in. I was genuinely disgusted by my almost primal behavior.

After we had both showered, of course together, with Stiles doing some things in the shower to alleviate my unwanted arousal that his scent had caused, we got into Stiles' car and headed off toward our school.

School felt particularly boring that day, perhaps because I had so many other more interesting things going on in my life.

After school we had lacrosse practice. It was going like it usually did until Stiles got tackled. Without even thinking about it, I slammed the guy that had done it to the ground and started punching him.

"Scott, what the hell!" exclaimed Stiles, pulling me off of the guy with strength I didn't even know he possessed. He put his hands on my shoulders and looked into my eyes, trying to calm me. I snatched away from him and walked off the lacrosse field toward the trees. Stiles ran up behind me and forcibly turned me around to face him, being a lot more aggressive than he usually was. "What is going on with you?" he asked.

"I don't know," I answered honestly.

"You can't go around beating the crap out of everyone who touches me. Next thing you know, you're gonna be beating up people when they pat me on the back. It can't be like this, Scott. Do you understand?"

I nodded. I had never seen Stiles take charge that way.

"Let's go talk to Coach Finstock. You're probably gonna get suspended or something now," said Stiles, leading me back toward the lacrosse field with his hand on my back.

"Coach Finstock, he's just been having a hard week," said Stiles in my defense as we sat in the coach's office.

"That's very nice, Stiles, but I would like for Mr. McCall to speak for himself," said Coach Finstock turning his gaze to me.

I lifted my head to look at him.

"I don't know, Coach. I've got a lot on my mind, I guess."

"You guess? McCall, you just tried to beat the living crap out of that poor kid. What is up with this violent streak you've had lately? In all seriousness, is everything alright at home, McCall?"

"Yeah. It's fine. It's just...I've grown to care a lot about Stiles lately."

The coach looked dumbfounded.

"_A lot_," I repeated.

"Oh..._oh. _Well, I couldn't care less, McCall. That still doesn't give you the right to go around attacking everyone who tackles _him_," said the coach, pointing to Stiles, who was now leaning with his hands on the back of the chair I was seated in. Stiles looked around, almost with a guilty look.

"It's not your fault, Stiles. I'm the psychopath," I told him.

"Anyway, don't let it happen again. I'll apply the "three strikes, you're out" rule to this one. This is your second strike, McCall. Don't let there be a third one," finished the coach.

We solemnly exited the coach's office. As we left through the front doors of the school, I saw Isaac standing by Stiles' car.

"Hey," said Isaac as we approached him, obviously more so speaking to Stiles than I.

"Hey," Stiles returned.

I remained silent, wondering if he was up to something.

"So, here's your pen I borrowed in chemistry class," said Isaac to Stiles, handing him a blue pen.

"Oh. Wow. Thanks. Don't come across kids like you too often," said Stiles, with a smile.

"Yeah. You don't know the half of it." Isaac moved a little closer to Stiles.

"Alright, Stiles. We have that thing," I said, trying to come up with an excuse to remove Isaac from my boyfriend's space.

"What thing?" asked Stiles, genuinely oblivious to what I was trying to do.

I wiped my hand down my face in disbelief at my boyfriend's dimwitted behavior.

"Uh. Okay then. I'll see you later Isaac," said Stiles.

"Alright then. Bye Stiles. Bye Scott." When Isaac said my name, he said it with mischief behind his tone.

Stiles smiled at him and we walked toward his Jeep.

"Did you find anything suspicious about the way he was talking?" I asked Stiles.

"Uh, no. You're just over-analyzing, as usual," Stiles said a bit more harshly than he probably intended.

"Oh my god. You mean that."

"It's just that I'm getting a little tired of you going all bloody murder on everyone over me lately. Pretty soon, I'm not gonna have any friends."

"I'm sorry, baby." I picked him up and sat him on the hood of his car. He immediately jumped back off.

"No. We're not about to make out 'til I forgive you. Promise you'll talk to Derek."

"Ugh. Again?"

"Yes. Again. I wanna know what the hell is wrong with you."

"Fine."

Stiles dropped me off at my house and then continued on to his.

As I sat in my room that night, I thought about the interaction that had went down between Isaac and Stiles.

"What was he up to?" I thought aloud.

Something about it just wasn't innocent. The way Isaac moved closer to Stiles when he told him "he didn't know the half of it". What did that even mean, anyhow? He doesn't know the half of it? He doesn't know the half of what?

The thoughts of that scene drove me to pay the visit to Derek that I'd promised Stiles I'd make.

"Mom, I'm taking the car." I grabbed the keys off of the hook and left out of the door before she could even respond.

I drove faster than usual, yearning to know why my relationship with Stiles suddenly seemed so complex.

"You again?" said Derek as I entered his place of solace.

"Yeah. I promised Stiles I'd visit you."

"Why?"

"I have another question. I keep, um, beating the living crap out of people over Stiles and it needs to stop. Help me?"

"That again? Look, Scott. No matter what is _causing_ your uncontrollable rage, the solution for it is universal. Every person, whether human or shape-shifter, has the responsibility to control themselves. For some, like us, it's harder, but it's still something we have to do."

I couldn't even respond. I had never thought about it that way. I had always assumed that this werewolf stuff had solutions for every one of its shortcomings.

"Practice composing yourself when those situations do arise. I'm still running my tests, and I'll know if you've been practicing."

His last sentence rang through my head throughout the night. How would he know? What are these "tests"?

I did get to sleep that night, but it wasn't the good kind of sleep; it was the kind of sleep in which you have so many thoughts crowding your mind that it's barely sleep at all.

At school the next day, I made my way to the lunchroom, expecting to see Stiles sitting in his usual spot, but he wasn't. I looked around the cafeteria. I was about to come to the conclusion that he'd had something important to do until I saw him flagging me down from a different table. He was sitting with...Isaac.

"Hey, Issac," I said lamely, not wanting my suspicions of Isaac to be too obvious, as they had upset Stiles previously.

"Hey, Scott" he replied. "Want some of my cookie, Stiles?" he offered my boyfriend.

"Sure," Stiles responded. He could never turn down food.

Isaac held the cookie out toward Stiles' mouth. Stiles looked a little surprised that he hadn't just broken off a piece and handed it to him but, being the open person that he was, he didn't think about it too long before he bit the cookie as Isaac held it out. As Stiles bit the chocolate chip cookie and licked the leftover chocolate from his lower lip, I smelled a peculiar aroma emanate from Isaac. It was...arousal. I'd had enough.

"Okay. You know what? Stiles, even though it may upset you, I must say something. Isaac, I know for a fact that you're aware of my relationship with Stiles because Derek is your Alpha, and I'm sure he's mentioned it to you."

Isaac look surprised at my sudden outburst.

"My point being, back the hell off."

"But I was just-," Isaac tried to explain.

"Save it, man. This-," I grabbed the stunned Stiles and pulled him into an engaging and inappropriately tongue-involved kiss. "is mine," I finished.

Isaac looked worried, but what confused me was that his concerned gaze was aimed directly behind me rather than at me. I heard someone clear their throat and turned around to meet the gaze of the school principal, the one that replaced the wicked Gerard Argent after he "disappeared".

"How about you and your _friend_ meet me in my office after lunch," he said slowly.

I nodded nervously in response. I'd gotten to know the new principal very well, as he'd proven to be the most efficient one Beacon Hills High School had ever seen. The first thing he did after he was inaugurated was examine the files of Beacon Hills' most challenged students, a roster which obviously included me, with the academic mudslide I seemed to be stuck on. Most of the school's students' test scores were above average, so pinpointing students like myself and the like proved to be not so difficult. He'd chatted with me one-on-one about why my academic profile was so mediocre and had gotten me on a personalized tutoring plan. I really did appreciate it though, that someone seemed to care about my academic success. Obviously, Stiles cared, but there was only so much my boyfriend, who was extremely smart, but still limited as to how much he could help a person without hurting his own test scores in the process, could do.

I looked at Stiles after the principal had walked away. "Sorry," I said pathetically. Stiles didn't respond, appearing not to know what to say.

As we sat outside of the principal's office, Stiles gave me a sudden peck on the lips.

"What was that for?" I asked, happily surprised, but dumbfounded.

"I didn't wanna air out our personal lives in front of Isaac, but I am so proud of you, Scotty Poo," he responded.

"I'd really hate to ask, because I'm very happy that you're not pissed at me for flipping out on Isaac and getting you sent to the principal's office, but why exactly are you proud?"

"Scott, that wasn't 'flipping out'. What you did to Jackson in the locker room, _that_ was flipping out."

A figurative light bulb lit up above my head. "Oh, yeah. You're totally right. I controlled it. I don't know how though."

Stiles grabbed my face and gave me three sweet, slow kisses. Apparently, he didn't time them well because they were once again seen by the principal.

"Glad to see that you two haven't changed since lunchtime. Come on in," he ushered us.

I was nervous, sitting there in that office. I didn't like getting in trouble mainly because it crushed me to see my mom look disappointed in me.

"So, gentlemen, as I'm sure you're aware of, we have a code of conduct here at Beacon Hills, as do all high schools. Graphic PDA, such as what I witnessed you two demonstrating about half an hour ago...and five minutes ago outside of my very office, is considered inappropriate in this environment."

"We're sorry, sir. It's just that I love him," Stiles started, grabbing my hand. "so much," he finished.

I felt myself blush. The principal tried to hold back a genuine smile.

"Alright." He stood up, walked over to the door, and opened it. "You two get out of here."

Stiles quickly ceased the moment and went for the exit. I quickly got up and followed.

"Control the PDA," the principal said as we exited, closing the door behind us.

I was about to kiss Stiles, until I realized that that was the very conduct we'd just almost been punished for.

"I love you too," I said.

"Thanks, but I mostly said that to keep us out of trouble, which I performed beautifully, if I don't say so myself."

Before I could even get sad, Stiles kissed me. I frantically looked around, as we were still fairly close to the principal's office.

"Don't worry. Unlike you, I'm careful." He kissed my nose and started to walk off toward his class.

After school, as Stiles and I walked toward his Jeep, we noticed a box and a rose on the hood of his car.

"Oh. I love this candy. Who left this?" Stiles read what was written on the box of candy. "It's from Isaac," he said to me carefully. "He even left a flower," he added clumsily.

I felt sadness more-so than anger. It was like Isaac was beating me at romancing my own boyfriend. I could see on Stiles' face that he really appreciated the thoughtful gifts.

"Don't worry, sweetie." He kissed my forehead. "Well, actually, if he plans on giving me good sex, you should worry, because I have so much filthy, horny energy built up from you denying me sex because you 'don't wanna hurt me'."

That really worried me. Stiles just laughed at the look of panic on my face, kissing me on the forehead and getting into his Jeep.

After Stiles dropped me off at home, I lied in bed, thoughts of him potentially falling for Isaac filling my mind. Isaac just seemed to be so much better at this thing than me. He was so...smooth. I ran an anxious hand through my hair. There was only one thing to do: I had to have sex with Stiles.

It was a little after midnight when I called him up. I figured that sex after midnight would be a little bit more dirty and enjoyable than evening sex.

"Hey, honey," he answered.

"Uh, hey, baby. Wanna come over?"

"Sure," he replied nonchalantly.

After I hung up, I tried to concoct a plan. I needed to bring him so much pleasure that he wouldn't dream of leaving me. I collapsed face-first into my pillow in frustration. I went downstairs to open the door, as I'd heard Stiles' distinctive break whine as he pulled up in front of my house, even though I didn't need to, as he'd had a key made ages ago.

"Hey, babe," I said before kissing him hello.

He smiled and walked up to my bedroom. I locked the door and followed, taking my time as to allow myself just a little more time to think this over. I watched as he dropped his bag on my floor, removed his jacket, and hopped into my bed, clearly anticipated my joining him. I smiled weirdly and slowly made my way over to the bed.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked, giggling as I got into the bed with him.

"I'm gonna be honest with you. I was worried because...I felt like Isaac was showing me up, you know? And I know you're gonna say 'you'd never leave me for him' and stuff, but you never know what could happen. He could end up really impressing you."

I breathed in heavily as I'd said most of it in one breath.

"Scott, I'm not even going to entertain that idea."

"Well, you don't have to, because _I'm_ going to entertain _you_." I used the remote to mute the television and started kissing and biting Stiles' neck in such a way that hickeys were inevitable. I took his extravagant moaning as a good sign.

"Oh, Scott. I want this so bad," Stiles said with his eyes closed in pleasure.

"Good," I responded roughly.

I felt his delicate hand rub me through my zipper, which significantly increased the pressure down there.

"God, you're so big too," he added. "I want your big werewolf cock."

"Then take it out. It's all yours."

With a devilish grin he unzipped my jeans, reached into my boxer briefs, and started to stroke me. It didn't take long before I got that familiar tingly feeling.

"Um, Stiles, I am very, very attracted to you. Therefore, just feeling your hand around it right now is almost enough alone to make me reach my peak, so stroking it is definitely not a good idea unless you want me to climax prematurely."

He ignored me. I felt my eyes rolling back and couldn't help but push into his hand a little as he expertly worked me. He looked at my face as if trying to estimate when I was going to release. I moaned authentically as I rapidly approached. Before I knew it, his hand was drenched.

"Stiles, why?" I exclaimed, breathing heavily as I came down from my sexual high.

"Because I could tell you had pent up hormones."

"But I wanted to use those hormones on you!"

"Okay, now _I'm_ gonna be honest with _you_: I don't like the idea of you plowing me just because you're scared that Isaac is gonna do it first. That's not what I want our first time to be like."

I felt guilty.

"It's okay, Scott. The only reason I didn't tell you why I was doing that for you was because I knew you wouldn't let me help you out unless I felt pleasure too. That's one of the things I love about you; you're selfless, but now you won't have to feel like you're gonna explode whenever we're together because you're not touching me. I can see how sexually frustrated you are all the time, Scott. You don't think I notice the boners you get just from sitting next to me? I mean, my hormones get crazy sometimes too, but I know yours are amplified because of the whole werewolf thing, so I'm gonna wash my hands and go home. You get some rest."

After he left my bathroom from washing his hands, I stopped him.

"Wait, Stiles. I want you to stay here tonight."

"But, your mom-"

"I don't care. I love you."

He smiled warmly.

"I love you too, Scott, but your mom is gonna scald you if she sees that I slept in your bed. You know she doesn't like the idea of you getting freaky with anyone in her house."

"I still don't care."

"Well then," Stiles said mischievously.

Stiles removed all of his clothes, including his underwear, and hopped into my bed, hiding his exposed lower half under the covers.

"How about we test that amazing werewolf stamina and see how much fun I can have with that supernatural thing of yours, hm?"

I stripped faster than I knew I could and gladly accepted his challenge.


	10. I Love You

Here it is: the reworked final chapter of Love So Powerful That It Aches. I urge everyone to read this chapter from the beginning, even if you read the previous version, as I have made several subtle changes throughout. Okay, truth time: it honestly did not feel right ending the story the way I did before. As a fluff addict, it did not sit well with me. I think you all will find this ending much more palatable. I know I did. Writing this story has been a significant journey, and I'd like to thank you all for taking it with me.

* * *

As Stiles and I trudged down the stairs, we were stopped by my mom.

"Oh. Hello, boys. I saw Stiles' car outside, so I kinda figured he'd stayed here last night. Well, get on to school before you're late."

I didn't know what to say. I stood there with my mouth slightly open, but no words would come out. Stiles gave me a questionable look, smiled at my mom, and left out of the door, probably figuring that I'd snap out of it in a second and follow him. My mom grabbed my arm, gave me a wink, and walked off toward the kitchen. Clearly, she knew exactly what was going on between Stiles and I.

"Did she say anything?" asked Stiles as I entered his Jeep.

"Um, no. She just...winked at me."

"Well, that's good, right? She wasn't pissed at you for having me over all night."

"Yeah. I guess it's just weird that she knows. It's such a sudden thing for her to just know about me dating my male best friend like that."

"Yeah, well, hard parts outta the way," said Stiles with a smile and started his Jeep.

At lunchtime, Isaac somehow made his way over to our table _again_.

"Scott, before you say anything, I just wanted to apologize. I didn't realize that I was crossing the line, and for that I am sorry," said Isaac.

Stiles gave him a heartwarming smile, but I wasn't buying it. I pulled Stiles closer to me, even though Isaac was sitting on the opposite side of the table. Stiles shot me a death gaze and I rolled my eyes, silently agreeing to play nice. He smiled at my cooperation. Our nonverbal communication was amazing.

Isaac seemed to be waiting for me to say something.

"Fine. It's alright, Isaac. I guess I can be a little overprotective sometimes."

Isaac smiled and I gave him a pathetic smile back. That was when I saw Allison sitting with Lydia and Jackson at another table. I felt bad for almost forgetting she existed when we had lunch the same period.

"I'll be right back, Stiles," I told him quietly.

He smiled and nodded in response.

I walked over to Allison's table and everyone gave me a look like I was some kind of monster. I was sure she'd slandered me to everyone, and rightfully so.

"Uh, hi, Scott," Allison said, giggling at how I walked over and didn't say anything for over ten seconds. "You need something?"

"Um, can we talk?"

I pointed to an empty table. She smiled weakly and walked over to it, sitting down. She was silent, waiting for me to start.

"I, uh...I wanna make amends."

"I've already forgiven you, Scott. I just need time."

"How much time?"

She was quiet for a while.

"I don't know."

She got up and walked back over to her table.

Allison had been in the back of my mind since I'd broken up with her so bluntly. I felt terrible, but I was determined to reconcile with her. I did still love her, very much so. I sat there scratching my head in frustration and decided to glance over at Stiles and Isaac. He was looking at something on Stiles' phone. The fact that he was holding something that belonged to Stiles was enough to convince me to make my way back over there. I didn't want Stiles to end up holding anything _else _of Isaac's.

"What did you do?" asked Stiles when I sat back down next to him.

"I tried to fix things with Allison, but she said she still needs time. I'm willing to wait because I _will_ repair my relationship with her."

"Oh, Scott. You can't fix _everything_. You're always trying to make everything right in the world. That's one of the reasons I love you."

Stiles kissed me on my cheek. I felt awkward with Isaac just sitting there, so I decided to join him in the conversation.

"So, Isaac, what's new in your life?"

"Nothing, really, other than the whole werewolf thing, but that's old news now." He scratched the back of his head, appearing not to know what else to say.

"You okay?" I asked.

He appeared flustered by something.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine."

He smiled falsely. After the bell rang, Stiles and I went our separate ways. Isaac grabbed me in the hallway.

"Wanna ditch this period?" he asked.

"I'm the last person at this school who should be ditching anything," I said truthfully. "I must say that I'm surprised, though. I didn't think you would wanna go anywhere with me after the way I've been treating you."

"Ah, it's understandable. Totally cute boyfriend causes you to be a d-bag; I get it."

My cheeks reddened a little, embarrassed that he thought I was a d-bag.

"There is a way you can make it up to me, though," he suggested, smiling.

I already knew that he was talking about me ditching with him. Being the desperate-to-be-liked-by-everyone guy that I was, I accepted his proposal. He probably just wanted us to become friends after he gave me the wrong impression. I nodded and smiled, then we snuck out of the school.

"Isn't this...Derek's car?" I asked, looking around, wondering if Derek was gonna come out of nowhere and murder Isaac right in front of me.

"Yeah. He let me borrow it. I told him it was for pack purposes."

Even with his explanation, I was hesitant to enter the car. Eventually, though, I gave in.

"Alright. Let's do this," I said, shrugging.

After we'd gone to the arcade and gotten something to eat, Isaac surprised me with a question.

"Where do you live?" he asked, keeping his eyes on the road.

"You wanna go to my house?"

I was skeptical.

"Yeah...there's some stuff I wanna tell you."

He seemed overladen.

"Okay," I said softly.

After we got to my house, we went up to my bedroom. Isaac sat on my bed and I accompanied him.

"So, what's up?" I asked.

"I like Stiles," he admitted.

"I kinda figured."

"But I don't wanna be with him."

"Then why are you always being all flirty?" I asked, confused.

"It was Derek's idea."

He seemed physically pained to be betraying his alpha, then it all came together for me. Derek's "tests" were Isaac flirting with Stiles. Derek was testing me to see if I could control my anger...and I did.

"Wow. Derek is a total genius," I said, smirking.

"Wait. So...you're _not_ angry?"

"Why would I be? Nothing bad came of it, and now my problem is solved. I'm controlling my anger."

"Do you know _how_ you're doing it, though?"

He'd bursted my bubble. I exhaled and my shoulders slumped in defeat.

"I don't know what to do, Isaac."

He reluctantly placed a comforting hand on my back and rubbed a little in a soothing circular motion.

"Hey, I meant to ask you what you were looking at on Stiles' phone," I mentioned.

"Your body."

"What?"

"I asked Stiles if he had a picture of you shirtless."

"Why?"

"I told him I had a crush on you. He felt so bad because he thought he was dating my crush, so he obliged when I asked to see a pic of your abs. I don't have a crush on you, Scott."

"So, why did you ask to see the pic then?"

"I actually just want you to fuck my brains out," he said while checking something on his phone.

"Oh. Uh, wow, Isaac. You've, um, become so straightforward. I guess I appreciate the honesty."

"How's you and Stiles' sex life?" he asked bluntly.

"What? Did Stiles discuss that with you?"

"No, of course not. I was just wondering." Isaac looked down at his hands.

"It's terrible, to be honest," I confessed. "I'm always afraid I'm gonna hurt him, you know?"

"Hurt him how?"

"I don't know. Like I might lose control and do it too recklessly or something 'cause I'm a werewolf."

I felt myself blushing.

"That sounds like a good thing, though. Sounds really pleasurable."

"Yeah, but Stiles is a human, a very soft one at that."

I rolled my eyes and Isaac shrugged.

"I'm not human," he stated, still looking down at his hands as he played with his fingers a little. "I've always wondered what it would be like to just be _fucked_ by another werewolf," he continued. "I mean really _fucked_."

I just sat there and watched him talk. It was like watching a sex scene in a film: arousing, but out of place.

"I used to wonder what it would be like to suck another werewolf's cock," he added.

"Used to?"

"Yeah...oh, did you forget about Derek? I mean, I'm not dating him or anything, but you know the guy gets horny. He used to just ignore his sexual cravings 'til I came along. I'm always teasing him and getting him real wired up."

"Derek's gay?"

"Alpha werewolves don't have sexual preferences."

"So...so what did you and Derek do?" I asked, guiltily turned on listening to him talk about his sex life.

"I sucked his cock."

The way he said it without shame made more blood rush to my pants.

"The guy has a huge cock," he went on. "I think it's a werwolf thing, huge cocks. I love sucking cocks. I think they taste good. I noticed that every guy tastes different. Anyway, I didn't let him fuck me. No, I would only let someone fuck me if I liked their personality. I mean, don't get me wrong; Derek is hot as shit, but the guy's a dick. You, on the other hand, you could fuck me."

"I could?" I asked, feeling drunk from listening to him talk about his sexual appetite.

"Definitely. You're so sweet, and hot too. If I'm right about all werewolves having big cocks, that means you have one too. Do you, Scott?"

"I...I don't know."

"Well, what does Stiles say? Actually, it doesn't matter what he says, unless he's given you a blow job or let you fuck him. Those are really the only ways to tell if a cock is truly big or not. I know you haven't fucked him, 'cause you told me you haven't, but has he sucked you off?"

I shook my head "no".

"Why not?" Isaac asked.

"He doesn't do that, but he says maybe after we've been together longer," I answered.

"That's too bad."

I remained silent.

"Well, since Stiles wouldn't be able to tell me if you have a big cock, and you say you don't know, how about I take a look, you know, for research purposes, to see if all werewolves really do have big ones? I could do an...in-depth analysis," he suggested devilishly.

He started to rub me in the area of interest.

"For research?" I asked.

"Yeah. Research."

Isaac went for my zipper, but I grabbed his wrist.

"What?"

He seemed annoyed.

"I wanna fuck you," I blurted.

He tried to pounce, but I put my hand against his chest to stop him.

"But, I'm with Stiles, and you know that. Why are you doing this?"

"Because I'm horny, but you didn't fuck me and you're faithful to Stiles. Congrats. It's for the best, anyhow; I probably would've made your dick sore," he said before winking and leaping out of the window.

I fell back on my bed and exhaled. His offer was very enticing. I felt like a cheater, a horn dog who's main concern was sex rather than love, but I smiled as I realized that I _wasn't_ a cheater. I controlled myself and turned Isaac down. Stiles was all I really wanted. I looked at the clock and realized that the class period I'd ditched was almost over. I needed to get back to school. I didn't like riding my bike super fast 'cause it looked suspicious, but it was the only way I was gonna make it back to the school in time for next period. Isaac had left me with no ride. Being a werewolf really came in handy sometimes.

"Isn't that Stiles' t-shirt?" asked Jackson as I changed after lacrosse practice.

Stiles had a dental appointment and couldn't make it to practice.

"Yeah, so?"

"You two are weird."

I shrugged, thinking that it was a pretty normal thing for a guy to share clothes with his boyfriend. A moment later I realized that Jackson must have been unaware of my dating Stiles. Allison told him and Lydia that I'd broken up with her, but, apparently, she didn't tell them why. I smiled involuntarily. She always thought of others first, even when they'd wronged her. I was sure that he'd know very soon though, as I'd made out with Stiles in the lunchroom yesterday when I was proving a point to Isaac. That was the first time we'd been affectionate with a lot of people around. I mean, I didn't care if people knew about our relationship; I just knew that jerks like Jackson were gonna make it into something they could use against us. Obviously, Allison had considered it as well.

Much to my surprise, Stiles showed up in the locker room.

"You're back?"

"Yeah. Apparently, my appointment was an hour ago, so..."

"Oh, hey, Stiles. Scott," Isaac greeted us. He always seemed to show up whenever I was with Stiles.

"Hey," said Stiles.

I gave him a silent "hey" nod.

"How come you weren't at practice?"

"Oh. I had an appointment."

"Oh. Okay. You know, it sucks that you weren't here. My favorite part of practice was always watching you change," he said with a wink, 'causing Stiles to blush uncontrollably.

I looked at Isaac in disbelief as he grinned at me.

"Can I have a hug?" he asked Stiles.

"Sure. I love hugs, but why?"

"You're just so adorable," he explained as he embraced Stiles.

I watched as his hand made its way down Stiles' side to the top of his jeans.

"That's enough," I said.

His hand then made its way around to Stiles' butt. I snatched him off of Stiles and slammed him against a locker.

"I said that's enough," I repeated.

"Scott! For fuck's sake, I thought you weren't gonna do this anymore," exclaimed Stiles.

"But he was-" I tried to explain.

"But he was what, Scott? Hugging me like _friends_ do? You're really unbelievable, you know that?"

He left out of the locker room without another word.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" I yelled at Isaac after Stiles had stormed out.

"Did I _say_ the tests were over? No. Did _Derek_ say the tests were over? Maybe, but he's my alpha, not my master."

"So you wanna fuck Stiles too, huh?" I asked in disbelief.

"I wouldn't mind, especially since I've never been on top. I think he'd be a nice first plow."

I restrained myself from strangling him, thinking about how Coach Finstock had said that I had one more strike left.

"I thought you liked me. I thought we were friends."

"I like your dick, Scott, not you, and, last time I checked, we didn't have sex, so I don't owe you anything."

He was pure evil. I stood there, not knowing what else to say as Isaac shot me a wink and left out of the locker room.

I tried to call Stiles for what was probably the tenth time as I left out of the school. It was a good thing that I had brought my bike because Stiles didn't wait for me. He was pissed. I also had a train of unanswered texts that I'd sent to him. I was desperate to talk to him, so I took the liberty of stopping by his house.

Not too long after after I'd rang the doorbell, Stiles came to the door.

"Can't you tell that I don't wanna talk to you?"

"Yeah, but you have to let me explain."

"No, Scott. Believe it or not, I _don't_ have to do whatever you want."

He slammed the door in my face. I figured I'd done enough damage to my relationship for one day and was about to go home until I heard the door reopen. It was Stiles again.

"Okay, let's go to the mall, because I'm not about to be that guy that ignores his boyfriend when he's angry at him. That doesn't solve anything," he said as he exited his house and headed for his Jeep.

"You know, you're really great," I told Stiles as I bit into my soft pretzel while we were sitting in the mall's lounge area.

"Is that so? How?"

"You just...who else would actually have the finesse to work out their relationship issues immediately rather than getting all emotional. Only you, Stiles. You're so smart and goal-oriented."

I tried to kiss him but he quickly pulled his head back.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. It's just...nothing."

"I guess I have to take back everything I said because you're dodging my question right now rather than just telling me what's wrong. Wait, is it because we're at the mall? Are you ashamed of me?"

"No, Scott. It's not that at all. It's just...I'm tired of you being all overprotective all the time and I'm starting to feel like the only way to fix the problem is to cut back on all the lovey stuff, okay?"

I just nodded in understanding. I didn't try to convince him otherwise. I felt terrible, but I respected and understood what he was saying. It must have been terrible to always be worried that your boyfriend was gonna flip out on the people you interacted with, especially if that boyfriend was a werewolf, like me.

Just then, Jackson and Lydia appeared.

"Hey, guys," said Lydia cheerily.

She took the liberty of sitting next to us which clearly annoyed Jackson, but he eventually sat too. Jackson was peering at Stiles.

"Um, what?" asked Stiles.

"Calm down, Hickeysaurus. I was just looking at your neck," said Jackson.

"Hickeysaurus? What?" asked Stiles.

Stiles realized that Jackson was talking about the hickeys I'd left on his neck a while ago that still hadn't healed. He quickly zipped up his jacket to cover them.

"Well, it was certainly nice seeing you two, but we've gotta run," said Stiles, in a hurry to leave.

I smiled at Lydia and Jackson then quickly got up and followed Stiles.

"Sorry," I said as I caught up with him.

"It isn't your fault. I _let_ you leave them on me," he said, frowning at me a little.

I had Stiles drop me off at Derek's hideout rather than at home. I had a few questions to ask him concerning his sociopath minion, Isaac.

"You keep showing up here," said Derek as he approached me. He always heard and smelled me before I even got inside.

"You shouldn't be complaining about anything after you sent Isaac out to ruin my life."

"Yeah, he was the test, obviously. I thought you wanted my help."

"I did, but now Isaac's made a game of it."

"Well, that isn't my problem nor my fault."

"I know. I can handle him myself. What I really wanted to talk to you about were the results of your little experiment. I actually did control my anger one time, at lunch, when Isaac was sexually harassing Stiles with a cookie."

"I know. You don't think Isaac reports back to me? He also told me that you have no idea how."

"Yeah, I don't. Do you?"

"Nope, but I will tell you that, the same way that you learned to control your transformation during a full moon, you can learn to control how angry you get over Stiles. Although, I will say that, even though I do remember you getting angry over Allison, I don't remember you getting angry over her as much as you do over Stiles,"

As I ran home on all fours, I thought about what Derek had said about Allison. His words inspired me to take another shot at making amends with her that very night.

I somehow found myself at her door with flowers.

"Scott?" she asked as she opened the door, clearly surprised.

"I love you, Allison."

"Scott," she giggled. "I know you love me, and I love you too."

She kissed me on the cheek. It was such a familiar sensation to feel her lips.

"You really don't think I know that after the times we've had?" she added. "Stop worrying about me, Scott. Everything will be just fine; trust me."

She said it with such confidence and certainty that I couldn't help but feel that all would be right in the world, even though hearing her voice had always tended to make me feel sure of everything anyhow.

"Allison, I want us to start hanging out again. I wanna see you all the time."

"You can't imagine how much I wanna see you too, Scott; trust me. But you need to work on your thing with Stiles right now. He's your priority now and I wouldn't wanna take from that at all."

I could tell that she meant her words and that she truly was not upset with me. When you've been with someone so intensely, you learn to read them, and I always knew when Allison was being genuine.

"I love you so much," I said.

"I love you too," she responded, getting slightly teary-eyed.

I kissed her on the forehead and looked at her for a few seconds before reluctantly sprinting off toward my house. I felt tears slowly tumble down my face as I was running home. I didn't completely know why I was crying. Obviously, I missed Allison, but it felt like there was also guilt behind those tears.

Randomly, I started thinking about earlier, when Isaac had tried to seduce me. Maybe I was ready to go all the way with Stiles.

I knew that Stiles was still a little angry at me for attacking Isaac in the locker room earlier so, rather than inviting him over, I showed up at his house. Well, I showed up at his window, to be specific. He rolled his eyes and came over to open it.

"What a surprise, not," he said grumpily.

I attacked his mouth with mine and we fell onto his bed.

"Stiles, I'm ready to go all the way."

"What? Here? Now? While I'm mad at you, really?"

"That's the best time. I'll be killing two birds with one stone: I'm gonna finally pleasure you _and_ It'll be make-up sex."

"But my dad is downstairs."

"Is the door locked?"

"No. I never lock my door."

I got up and turned the lock.

"Now it is."

"Okay, seriously? Scott, where is this coming from?"

"I don't know. I just really, really wanna have sex with you right now."

"I'm not your booty call," he said, pushing me off of him.

We heard the doorknob twist, followed by a knock.

"Stiles?"

It was his father.

"Um, yeah, Dad?"

"You never lock your door. I was just gonna ask you if you have this cool app I just downloaded on my phone. Open up."

"Kay, Dad."

Stiles turned to me.

"Try to look normal. You know, like you _weren't_ just trying to have sex with me?" he fussed quietly.

He opened the door.

"Let me just get my phone, Dad. Oh, Scott's here, by the way," he said, trying to seem innocent.

"Oh, really? He came through the...window?"

"Yeah. What a weirdo, right?"

"Yeah. Right. Hey there, Scott."

I smiled and waved awkwardly from Stiles' bed. They both left the room, with Stiles giving me an "I hate you so much" look before closing the door behind them. I looked out of the window. It was dark now. I yawned and stretched. It'd been a long day and I didn't even realize how tired I was until I was in a bed. Stiles' bed felt more comfy than mine. He probably had a better mattress. My eyes almost finished fluttering shut from boring thoughts that were driving me to sleep until Stiles reentered the room. He slowly closed the door back and leaned against it. I watched in perplexity as his back slowly slid down the door, allowing his bottom to eventually rest on the floor in a pathetic pose.

"Um, are you okay?" I asked.

"My dad...just asked me...if I need condoms."

"What? What else did he say?"

"He tried to make it not-so-obvious by mixing it in with this story about how he was about to run to the drug store because he needed some things and how he wanted to know if I needed anything. My dad has _never_ asked me if I needed condoms. Well, I guess he has now."

I felt a little bad, but not too bad because Stiles needed to tell his father about us soon anyway.

"I'm sorry, but at least you're one step closer to telling him, right?"

"Oh, ho, ho. You are soooo not getting any."

"I kinda figured I wasn't anyway."

Stiles collapsed on the bed, lying next to me. I stroked his hair.

"It's okay, Stiles."

He groaned into the covers.

"When did things get so complicated, Scott?

"I don't know."

I was wondering the same thing.

"I mean, one day, I'm obsessed with Lydia Martin. The next, I'm dating my best friend of the same sex. I mean, what the hell, man?"

"Ouch. Why don't you just call me Mistake? Jeez."

"You know I didn't mean it like that."

"I know."

I smiled, followed by a yawn.

"I think I should get home now. I've caused you enough grief for one night," I said, getting out of the bed.

I pecked him on the lips as he lied in bed.

"Goodnight, baby," I said.

"Goodnight, sweetie," he replied.

I was surprised to see none other than Derek in my room when I got home.

"Seriously?" I asked in disbelief.

"Hey, you show up at my place all the time."

I fell onto the bed in exhaustion.

"What do you want? I've had a really long day."

"I think I figured out how you controlled your anger."

Suddenly, I was a little less tired.

"Go on."

"You said Stiles was getting tired of you flipping out on his friends or whatever, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, you were able to control yourself after that because doing things that make Stiles upset hurts you."

I sat up.

"That totally makes sense. Then how come I slammed Isaac into a gym locker?"

"You haven't mastered it, but it's simple, really. When you feel yourself getting angry, think about how it's gonna make Stiles feel if you attack the person."

"That's genius."

I giggled as I remembered something.

"Hey, do you think you can tell me why I like the way he smells in the morning?"

"That's just you being a _gross_ werewolf because we are _not_ all like that."

"Thanks."

Derek turned to leave but I got up and put my hand on his shoulder. He winced a little. I knew he didn't like to be touched, but I didn't care. He turned around to face me.

"I really mean it. Thanks. For everything."

He put on his best sincere face.

"You're welcome."

He leaped out of my window, into the night.

"What a mysterious guy," I thought aloud.

I read a text message from my mom. She was telling me how she knew that Stiles and I were more than friends now and how she was happy that I'd found love after Allison. I didn't care that she knew. I was just happy to know that I was on the fast track toward controlling my anger and perfecting my relationship with Stiles while at the same time reconciling with Allison.

I inevitably dreamt of Stiles and Allison. They say you dream of the things that were occupying the most space in your mind before you drifted off into sleep.


End file.
